Sam Billings and James Vince shine for England in Dubai

After Morgan won the toss and England stumbled to 19 for three, it seemed they might pay for the surprise omissions of two first-choice batsmen.

In reply, Pakistan slumped from 51-0 to 120-6 in the 17th over, only for Afridi to give Pakistan hope by hitting three sixes in the 18th over before falling to Chris Woakes having made 24 from just eight balls.

Billings played beautifully after Vince was castled by the pacey Wahab Riaz (1-33), the Kent star playing like the man he replaced, Buttler, with a leg-side flick for six and a monstrous maximum over midwicket as England racked up 93 runs from the last 10 overs and 65 from the last six.

With a modest eight runs an over chase Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals after losing Sarfraz Ahmed (one) and Mohammad Hafeez for seven.

But when he bowled his third over went for 22, including a wide, a no ball, and three Afridi sixes over wide long off, deep square leg and deep cover, before the Pakistan captain was dismissed off the final delivery, Liam Plunkett doing well to hold on to a sharp catch when off balance. For Woakes to come back for the last over after getting a beating from Afridi says a lot about him.

Billings hit five sixes and two boundaries before being run out from the final ball the innings.

Eventually Pakistan fell short of the target by just four runs as England sealed a thriller to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

The wicketkeeper-batsman felt the whole evening should have been a little less stressful, as England nonetheless won for the second time in as many days and fifth in white-ball cricket over the past two weeks against these opponents.

The Pakistan openers Rafatullah Mohmand (23) and Shehzad (28) provided the ideal start as they put on a 51-run opening stand in five overs.

England captain Eoin Morgan wants to hand more youngsters T20 experience after Sam Billings’ fantastic showing against Pakistan.

Besides, Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid claimed two wickets while Stephen Parry also chipped in with a wicket. “It’s one of those, you try and take your opportunity when you get it and I took inspiration from Jos Buttler the other day”.

The remaining matches in the three-game series will be played in Dubai (Friday) and Sharjah (Monday).

Ahmed Shehzad, who missed the first game due to illness, returns in place of Mohammad Rizwan, while Shoaib Malik, who missed the first game due to a finger injury, returns in place of Imran Khan.

“Moving forward I think we can improve in every single area – batting, bowling and fielding – so as a squad that’s hugely exciting”.