England beat Pakistan by six wickets in second Twenty20 match
It would be stretching credibility to elastic proportions to claim that England’s seventh successive Twenty20 victory, over an insipid Pakistan team, was magnificent.
At best it was another sign of England teams, across all formats of the game, which have either rediscovered, in Test matches, or developed, in the limited-over versions, the killer instinct. And, in the Twenty20 mode, have learned how the tactics have developed. Oh, and it helps if you have the personnel for the task as well.
The second Twenty20 international, again at the Swalec Stadium in Cardiff, went the same way as the first except that Pakistan were even more abject as the series ended 2-0. The maelstrom of the current spot-fixing scandal is clearly making this tour difficult, to the point where playing them is more akin to a blood sport than cricket.
But even so this was a pale, even opaque imitation of the Pakistan team that was world Twenty20 champions in 2009. And yet the first six balls suggested that there was hope when, having won the toss, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 elected to bat and promote himself in the batting order. A first over, when Ryan Sidebottom was carted for 11 runs, hinted at a revival that lasted all the way to the second over when Tim Bresnan had Kamran Akmal caught by Graeme Swann for 11.
If Afridi’s decision to bat earlier in the innings was to allow him to have more of an impact on the match it did not work. He was certainly in the thick of things quickly enough as Mohammad Yousuf (four) and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahzaib-Hasan-c2488 (three) had the score at 20-3, which became 22-4 when Afridi was out for just two. The plot for the sorry tale of Pakistan’s innings was irretrievably set and by 56-7 the match was taking on a David-and-Goliath element, except that the little guy had left his slingshot at home.
What passed for drama came towards the end when Sidebottom took the wickets of Abdul Razzaq and Umar Gul, offering the chance of joining Brett Lee and Jacob Oram as hat-trick bowlers in international Twenty20; but the ball to Saeed Ajmal was wide of off-stump. That Shoaib Akhtar provided the shot of the innings, a thunderous drive for four through extra cover off Bresnan, probably said it all – the bowler ended the debate two balls later when he cleaned bowled Aktar (pictured) for a dismal total of just 89.
England’s reply started solidly enough. If http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Chris-Jones-c1244 standing in for him for the first day’s play.
Kieswetter and Steven Davies pushed the score to 26 by the third over – for which Akhtar switched ends – and Davies was out when a short ball caught him out and he popped up a catch to Umar at wide mid-wicket. The next ball Kieswetter was run out by the same fielder when sent back from an aborted quick single by Ravi Bopara but, even at 26-2, it was hardly the stuff of a dramatic fightback.
Commeth the hour, commeth the slightly reluctant captain who is rapidly becoming one of the most successful skipper’s in England’s cricketing history. By his own admission, Paul Collingwood was in need of a score but fell to a doosra from Ajmal that was caught at first slip by Mohammad Hafeez for 21.
Then commeth the man who is making a habit of closing out these games for England and Eoin Morgan and his steadying influence was required when Bopara was out, lbw to Afridi, to have England at 63-4. Morgan was joined by Michael Yardy – whose four overs had gone for a Scrooge-like 10 runs in the Pakistan innings – and the pair who had seen England home in the first match did the same with 36 balls to spare.
Now on to the first 50-over match at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Durham-c782 on Friday but, at this rate, it takes a stretch of the imagination to see anything but an England win.
Tags: