Pakistan Thrash England in The One off T20I, End Tour on a High.

England were thrashed by Pakistan in their last international of the summer, losing the only T20 match of the series by nine wickets at Old Trafford, Manchester. Visitors were given a target of 136 to win, Pakistan won the game inside 15 overs, Openers Sharjeel Khan (59) and Khalid Latif (59 not out) had a stand of 107. This was England’s second biggest T20  defeat in terms of balls remaining and they were defeated by nine wickets third time.

Earlier England limped to 135-7, losing six wickets for 54 runs, and at one stage there were no boundaries for more than seven overs. A disappointing end to an otherwise successful limited-overs home summer for England, in which they had beaten SriLanka in T20 and ODI and Pakistan in an ODI Series.

England’s batting was unintelligent for some part of the innings. Was the home team unnerved by the crowd, euphoria and occasion? About half the size of Old Trafford’s capacity crowd accounted for Pakistan’s supporters. It looked like a warm evening in Lahore or Karachi as green flags and shirts took possession of the stands.

England began well by scoring 53 without loss in their power-play of six overs, which looked like they were set for a formidable total.

Jason Roy couldn’t make the most of Imad Wasim’s slow left-armers; in the opening over, by Wasim, Roy made one run off five balls and total 3 off 7 balls.

The shot-selection by Roy and Alex Hales was more disappointing when given this problem of Wasim’s full-length darts to solve. Both have the ability to hit spinners straight so well, yet they tried risky options and left the incoming batsmen to settle down, which they never did.

Pakistan’s pace battery were intelligent in working out that bowling short length deliveries would be fruitful, given the pitch and the boundaries, and they were superb in varying their pace. Hasan Ali and Wahab Riaz were the pick of the bowlers, and particularly Riaz who found some reverse-swing as well bowling over 90 mph – whereas England’s seamers just banged it in and were taken to cleaners.

Joe Root tried to upper-cut a bouncer of the slower variety and was caught at third man. Buttler tried to be clever in trying to ramp, then cut to deep cover, while Ben Stokes hooked to deep square. Wickets at regular intervals costed England which resulted in the innings fizzling out in singles and leg-byes.

England hit only one four in the 2nd half of their innings. Pakistan hit 14 fours and a six in their power-play as England’s pace bowlers proved to be the most expensive. Chris Jordan bowled width and conceded four fours in his first over.

Both Ben Stokes and Chris Jordan went for 16 off their first over, Plunkett for 15 in his first. By then Pakistani openers Sharjeel and Latif were in such a thunderous mood that leggie Adil Rashid’s first over also went for 16.

Pakistan scored their highest power-play score – 73 without losing a wicket. Unlike Their counterparts Roy and Hales, the visitors’ openers kept going and did not leave it for the following batsmen to play themselves in, yet they had a stand of 100 in a mere 9.3 Overs.

And it was delightful to see Pakistan out-run England between wickets, and out-field them.

STATS from the Match

Pakistan’s win was their biggest in T20Is in terms of wickets.

This was the fourth time England have lost a T20 with at least five overs to spare.

Pakistan registered their fourth win over England in T20Is.

Sharjeel and Latif scored their best scores in T20s.