England complete T20 whitewash against Pakistan
England completed a massive landslide victory against Pakistan in the final T20 match by 6 wickets and wrapped up the series 2-0 at Cardiff. Pakistan team did not look up for it and considering all that has been going on in the background they looked like they were tired and mentally exhausted. The visitors look ready to go home and put this nightmare tour behind them. The pedestrian performance in the 2nd T20 was clear evidence that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482’s men were not mentally up to play international cricket and were not able to perform.
The 2 match miniseries was built up to be the battle of former T20 world champions versus the current champions. But it was hardly that, actually it was England who dominated Pakistan throughout in all departments of the game. The first game at the same venue on Sunday saw Pakistan batsmen struggle against some good thoughtful bowling, when the spinners restricted the middle order to hard earned singles. While in the 2nd match, it was the hostile short pitch bowling from England seamers that accounted for the visitors.
At the toss Shahid Afridi had said that the pitch looked good to bat on, while his counterpart Paul Collingwood begged to differ and said he would have chosen to bowl even if he had won the toss. The home team captain was vindicated as Pakistan team just could not cope with the aggressive approach by English attack.
The first over gave false hope that this may be a different Pakistan team on the pitch today; Kamran Akmal smashed 11 form Ryan Sidebottom’s first over but it was all downhill from then on. Tim Bresnan restricted Kamran to backfoot defensive shots and it took him just 3 balls to sky one in the air. Muhammad Yousuf also fell prey to the same tactic. Kamran’s younger brother Umar came in and once again showed some promise but as the trend has been with him, he too delivered little. Shahid Afridi was probably the biggest disappointment; the captain looked completely out of form from the moment he stepped on the field. Afrid looked completely uninterested in building any sort of innings and after playing and missing a couple, he lofted one high on the leg side. He did get away with it as the ball fell between the two fielders, but the all rounder did not learn anything from it and the very next ball carelessly slashed at one and gave an easy catch at point. Muhammad Hafeez, who was brought in place of Wahab Riaz, also hardly did anything to justify his selection. He tried his best but just could not get the ball out of the circle. While Fawad Alam came and went back on the very first ball. Abdul Razzaq followed the trend and after a frustrating stay at the wicket skied one behind the keeper. Eventually, Pakistan were all out for just 89 runs, their lowest ever T20 total.
In reply England knew they were never going to test their in-form batting line up. Shoaib Akhtar got the wicket of Davies, and Umar Akmal showed a glimpse of brilliance in the field as he knocked the stumps down at the non strikers end to find Kieswetter short of his ground. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 did manage to get 2 more wickets but the writing was on the wall. England cruised home in the 14th over and sealed the match with a 6 wicket win. The tour now moves to ODIs and the first of the 5 one day international series will be played on Friday between England and Pakistan.
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