Key Highlights

• England invited the host to bat first and Pakistan set a target of 169/6 in 20 overs
• Babar Azam played a stable inning to score 87 runs in 57 balls
• Babar Azam has now entered the 3000+runs club in T20Is and is the fastest to achieve this mark.
• Philip Salt scored 19-ball half-century in today’s match, and scored 87* (41 balls).
• England won by 8 wickets

To begin the cricket battle at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, England won the toss and chose to bowl first against Pakistan.  Babar Azam and Mohammad Haris took the batting lead at the crease with Babar Azam on strike against the opening attack of Topley.

Starting with singles, Topley left no space for Haris and Azam to score more than 2 runs in the first over. Pakistan went on the bowling attack of Willey as well. With the right-arm fast medium bowler, Richard Gleeson on the ground, the game tweaked when Haris thumped a six and got caught out with Pakistan at 14-1 after 3 overs.

With Willey getting on the groove, took the wicket of Masood who left the pitch early. Azam played on a good length and at the stumps hitting the first four of the match in the 4th over. While Haider Ali couldn’t contribute much enough, Azam continued to pace up the match moving Pak score to 40-2 after 6 overs.

On a throw of Adil Rashid, Haider Ali smashed the first Six of the innings with Pak at 58-2 after 8 overs, crossing half-century. Duckett caught out Haider Ali restricting his score at 18 off 14 deliveries. Iftikhar Ahmed joined Azam, hammering four and six with Pakistan at 108-3 after 14 overs but Ahmed got out to Sam Curran. Their run-association posed Pak to a significant run score.

Babar pitched up the gameplay in the 16th over completing 3000 T20 runs and the fastest to get there! The first innings ended with Babar Azam and Mohammad Nawaz at the crease with Reece Topley on the bowling attack; Babar Azam amassed 87 off 59 single-handedly and Nawaz scoring 12 off 7 deliveries, restricting Pakistan at a total score of 169-6 in 20 overs.

The final innings started with Philip Salt and Hales at the crease to face the bowling attack of Mohammad Nawaz. With a good start, Philip hit the ball off the fence in the first over, grabbing two fours. Dahani lended 22 runs to England in the 2nd over which was quite expensive while Hales crunched beautiful fours and sixes with England at a score of 33-0 after 2 overs. Hales and Salt partnered to drag the score to 55-1 after 4 overs, with Shadab Khan taking the first wicket of Hales.

With Philip Salt and Dawid Malan on the crease, England smoothly touched the century, losing one wicket after 7 overs. Shadab Khan took another wicket of Malan, leaving him at a score of 26 off 18 deliveries.

Playing a couple of good hits for four and singles, both the fierce batters, Philip Salt and Ben Duckett took a hold on the match and smashed 170 runs, winning the match by 8 wickets with both unbeaten.

It’s the narrow margins that ultimately determine the winner in a conflict between two equally-powered units. Before this match, Pakistan prevailed by those margins and in the lengthy 7-match series as it was leading the series by 3-2. Lahore’s wickets, in contrast to Karachi’s, have been more bowler-friendly, as the hosts successfully defended 163 and 145 in the past two games. But, in today’s match, even the pitch couldn’t help Pakistan to restrain England’s opener, Philip Salt, who ultimately helped his team to level the series. Now, the series stands at 3-3, and now the world is eyeing on the last match of the series that will be played on Oct 2, 2022

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