Pakistan Register 9 Wicket Win In Tour Ending Twenty20 Against England

Sarfraz Ahmed fell 10 runs short of his second century of the series and Shoaib Malik passed 50 for the first time in 35 worldwide innings in England as their fourth-wicket partnership of 163 off 141 balls put Pakistan in sight of their target.

Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif smashed England s bowlers all round Old Trafford as Pakistan ended their tour in style with a crushing nine-wicket win in Wednesday s lone Twenty20 global.

Sarfraz (90) and Shoaib (77) set Pakistan’s new highest one-day global partnership for the fourth wicket against England.

Pakistan (squad): Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Khalid Latif, Sharjeel Khan, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Mohammad Nawaz, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan, Sohail Tanvir and Amad Butt.

The oxygen of Pakistan batting lineup, Sarfraz Ahmed scored a brilliant and match winning 90 runs off 73 balls in the last match against England.

But Sarfraz and Malik combined to compile the highest Pakistan fourth-wicket partnership in an ODI against England. The sub-continent team went down 1-4 to the hosts, hurting their chances of an automatic World Cup qualification for 2019. Rohit has 750 points just ahead of team-mate Shikhar Dhawan (737), according to a release by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

But the ODI captain responded to suggestions he might resign the captaincy by indicating he meant to carry on as skipper.

“I am very proud of this group of players”, said captain Morgan. “Leading by example is very important. That will help the team”.

“We wanted to finish on a high because we had a tough tour”, Pakistan captain Azhar Ali said.

ODI cricket has become a problem for Pakistan, with the Asian nation recording only their second win of 2016 in Cardiff on Sunday, Azhar conceded the team has a lot of work to do to get out of the hole they find themselves in.

Eoin Morgan, who passed 5000 career ODI runs last week, needs 54 to become the first England batsman to reach 1500 in T20s. In this series we’ve shown it every game – we’ve been ruthless in what we’ve done and the way we’ve gone about our business.

“We want to strive to be as consistent as we can”.

England, who won the one-day series 4-1, struggled to 135 for seven after making a good start before Pakistan adapted to the conditions much better and eased to their target with more than five overs to spare.

Morgan pointed out that all sides are playing some really strong cricket and, therefore, it is extremely hard to label anyone as favourites. In 2009, they staged back-to-back fixtures again Australia, but weather had the final say, as it did three years later when South Africa were the visitors.