England outplay Pakistan by 3 runs to win T20 series

The Pakistan chase seemed to be faltering till Afridi arrived on the crease with the hosts on one hundred twenty-6 with a bit over three overs remaining and smashed 24 runs off eight balls that included three sixes and a 4. “But, we showed a lot of character with the bat and the ball to do just enough at the right times and fair play to Chris Woakes for having the guts to stand up in that last over and do the job”.

Sarfraz Ahmed made 20 runs off 13 balls that included a lucky over-throw boundary that was deflected off his bat as he dived to make his ground in an attempt for a quick second run. However the Pakistan side surrendered after nail-biter in front of a huge crowd who were gunning for Pakistan’s victory.

The final match of the series is on Monday in Sharjah.

“We certainly weren’t as fluent as we liked”. The fact that the bowling unit clicked together should give England a lot of confidence going into the game.

Contrastingly, Afridi blamed his team’s poor batting.

“I think our progress since the start of the summer has been outstanding”, said Morgan.

India’s Rahul Dravid was the previous oldest to make his Twenty20 debut at 38 years and 232 days when he played against England at Manchester in 2011.

Sam Billings and James Vince impressed for a much-changed England as the tourists won the first T20I against Pakistan by 14 runs in Dubai.

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

England’s knock started sluggishly, the visitors losing openers Jason Roy (9) and Alex Hales (8) – the latter after he had been dropped twice off the same ball by Sohail Tanvir (2-31) – as well as Moeen Ali (0) to stumble to 19-3.

But Vince began to tick over at better than a run-a-ball, with a series of cultured conventional shots. Afridi returned for his last over to have Vince caught in the deep.

The young wicketkeeper, deputizing for the rested Jos Buttler, hit two sixes and five fours in a stand of 65 with Morgan who finished unbeaten on 45.

His wicket was Afridi’s 86th in as many matches, beating countryman Saeed Ajmal (85 wickets in 64 matches) as the highest wicket-taker in all Twenty20 cricket.

Buttler (33) hit a couple of sixes as 16 runs came from the 16th over for England.

England have thumped Pakistan by 14 in first Twenty 20 game of the three-match series at Dubai International Stadium, Dubai. 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.