England wins toss, opts to bat in one-off T20 against Pak

Pakistan would be looking to bring the curtains down on a long tour of England with a morale-boosting win in the one-off Twenty20 worldwide at Old Trafford in Manchester on Wednesday (September 7).

England have raised the bar dramatically since their woeful early exit from last year’s World Cup – and Morgan is happy to deal with increased expectations.

Put in to bat first, England fell short of what they wanted in making 302 for nine in Cardiff, with opener Jason Roy top-scoring with 87 and all-rounder Ben Stokes contributing his ODI best score of 75.

“The attitude and hunger to want to be better playing in that manner, I think, sums up the direction one-day global cricket is going and the talent we have”.

Mark Wood’s twin strike in one over had pegged back Pakistan to 77-3 before Ahmed and Malik’s fourth-wicket partnership led the strong recovery. “Every game throughout the series, we’ve come out with a hunger and determination to perform at our best”.

England won the ODI series in which Pakistan only managed to secure one victory at Cardiff.

England, who won the series 4-1, never produced the explosive power that has characterised their recent one-day batting. But Eoin Morgan’s side are playing a dynamic brand of cricket their opponents are finding hard to counter, leading some to claim – Michael Vaughan chief among them – that they are the best this country has produced.

In what was a much improved display from Pakistan, there were regular wickets that rocked England.

Pakistan’s struggles in the shorter formats of the game were reflected in their demolition by England in the ODI series, but the visitors would have gained a measure of confidence after winning the final ODI by four wickets.

Sarfraz Ahmed hopes to put the lessons he has learnt from playing under the “inspirational” Misbah-ul-Haq to good use when he leads Pakistan in their Twenty20 worldwide against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

“We just need to play some consistent cricket, fearless cricket”.

“I am really excited about the captaincy”, the wicketkeeper-batsman said, on the eve of what is likely to prove a tough examination of his team’s credentials against Eoin Morgan’s World Twenty20 finalists. Funnily enough, there have been plenty who said that nobody in the ’92 team could have played the innings that Hales played at Trent Bridge.

The 27-year-old admitted he went “beserk” celebrating with the fans around him, as well as England player Ben Stokes who narrowly missed catching the ball himself (see footage above, courtesy of Sky Sports). Where I think they are lacking in comparison to yesteryear is in discipline and accuracy, though the latter can lead to predictability, something most modern bowlers try to avoid.