Pakistan v England 3rd T20I - 5 Talking Points

Pakistan v England 3^rd T20I – 5 Talking Points: With the T20I series already under England’s belt this dead rubber was just a matter of pride and show of power before the two teams meet in the World T20 in India. Pakistan fought for this match for confidence and pride and England looked to seal the series 3-0, whitewash the hosts and end their tour of Pakistan on a high.

England won the toss and chose to bat first. With the initial struggle and late knocks by the lower order batsmen, they managed to put a total of 155. Pakistan had a similar start as they lost early wickets. Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi tried to ensure Pakistan a win but a late comeback by England ended the match into a tie and a super over battle was to become the decider on who’s to be the victor in this match. In the end, England won the balanced match with one ball to spare in a super over thriller.

1. Pakistan’s early party with the scalps:

The first ball of Aamer Yamin’s debut ODI fetched him the wicket of Jason Roy when he deceived him LBW becoming just the 11^th bowler in T20I history to take a wicket of the first ball bowled by the cricketer. In a few overs, skipper Shahid Afridi came to bowl and he just fell short of a hat-trick when he scalped the dangerous Joe Root and Moeen Ali on consecutive deliveries in the last over of the powerplay. Then Shoaib Malik was brought with the first delivery of his spell, he sent the skipper Eoin Morgan packing back to the pavilion with a tossed up delivery which straightened to deceive the batsman and break the timber. Soon after Joe Root ran himself out and Billings fell to Anwar Ali. England were 6 down for 86 and this gave Pakistan an upper edge in the start of the match.

2. Partnership between James Vince and Chris Woakes:

It was the knocks of James Vince and Chris Woakes and their partnership of 60 runs which brought England to a defendable target of 155. Chris Woakes scored 37 in just 24 balls including a four and three massive sixes and James Vince scored a much needed 46 at a strike rate of just above 100 during which he hit 3 boundaries and a six. They both played the much-needed knocks for their team and gave their bowlers some runs to play with to get the team across the line for the third consecutive time.

3. The rise and fall of the Pakistan batting:

The first over of the second innings was a very eventful one. Ahmed Shehzad opened Pakistan’s account with a first ball four. But in the fifth ball of the over, David Willey was the last one to laugh when he bowled Ahmed Shehzad with a length ball. He then followed it up with three wides but then yet another goof-up by Mohammed Hafeez at the crease got both the batsmen on one side of the pitch and Hafeez was run out. Willey picked up Rafatullah in his very next over and it was the first ball he faced in the match. Rizwan looked good for his 24 until a brilliant caught and bowled effort by Mohammed Rashid got England his wicket followed up by another brilliant catch by Jordan at the fence getting the dangerous Umar Akmal.

The knocks of Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi in the end were instrumental in giving the hosts an edge to win the last match of the tour. Afridi was sensible and gave Malik the strike. Shoaib Malik scored 75 in just 54 balls and Afridi scored 29 of 20 balls including 3 massive sixes in his brief stay. But none of these knocks were enough to stop the match from going into a decider super over round. This became the first incident when England has been involved in a tie in T20Is.

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4. The Super Over:

Pakistan to the surprise of the commentators opted for Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal instead of Shoaib Malik to face Chris Jordan from England. Jordan bowled tremendously well giving away just 3 runs and taking the wicket of Umar Akmal. England needed only 4 runs in one over to win the match and whitewash Pakistan in the series 3-0. Shahid Afridi came to bowl the super over for Pakistan to Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler. After a thrilling super over finish England edged out Pakistan with one ball to spare.

5. Shoaib Malik’s Man of the Match performance:

Even though Shoaib Malik ended on the losing side, he deserved to be the player of the match. Malik fabulously scored in all corners of the park and at a strike rate of almost 140 in an attempt to get Pakistan over the line in this thrilling encounter at Sharjah. He came to the crease in the second over itself when Pakistan were reeling at 11/3 and needed 155 to win the match. He consolidated the runs for his team and started scoring with Shahid Afridi and didn’t allow the run rate to go out of the reach of the Pakistani team. Malik played a match-defining and an important knock of 75 in 54 balls which consisted of 8 fours and two sixes and built a partnership with Shahid Afridi but, unfortunately, couldn’t win it for Pakistan as he got out in the last over and they lost in the super over.

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