Caribbean Times 88th Issue - Thursday 8th September 2016

16 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Thursday 8th September 2016
Pakistan cruise to nine-wicket win
OLD TRAFFORD - New captain,
new Pakistan? It’s always dangerous to
look too far ahead as far as their cricket
is concerned, but after one night in
Manchester Sarfraz Ahmed has a 100%
record as T20 skipper.
It can be difficult at the end of a long
tour to lift for a one-off T20 - the Super
Series, of course, had already been
decided lest anyone forget - but, amid
the most frenzied atmosphere of the
tour, which was marred by late pitch
invasions, Pakistan secured a thumping
nine-wicket victory with a massive 31
deliveries to spare.
They produced their most vibrant
bowling and fielding display of the
limited-overs leg of the trip to restrict
England, who fielded the side which
played the World T20 final in April, to
135 for 7: just 58 came off the final ten
overs and only three boundaries were
struck after the Powerplay.
The chase was a canter. Neither
Sharjeel Khan nor Khalid Latif needed
to bother with much running, by the
end of the fourth over they had equalled
England’s paltry tally of 10 fours. Both
reached their fifties with sixes, Sharjeel
off 30 balls and Latif, who only flew in
for this match, brought up his maiden
half-century off 34 deliveries.
With the ball Imad Wasim and Wahab
Riaz, the latter smartly held back
for the latter half of the innings as he
bowled all his overs from the 11th onwards,
produced the telling contributions.
Imad, who bowled the first over
then returned after the Powerplay (and
a clonk on the head at point) did not
concede a boundary and removed both
England openers. Wahab generated
fearsome speed, upwards of 95mph on
occasion, mixed with smart changes of
pace, to leave the middle order in a tangle.
After a couple of early overs of assessing
conditions, England initially
made good progress as Jason Roy and
Alex Hales took them to 53 without
loss in the Powerplay. Then Roy was
lbw trying to reverse sweep Imad and
from there England almost went into
reverse. Hales fell slog-sweeping at
Imad, as he did at Lord’s, and next ball
Joe Root uppercut Hasan Ali to third
man.
Jos Buttler, who missed the final
two ODIs with a hamstring niggle,
looked in the mood for a rebuilding
job, but 9 off four balls became 16 off
14 after two tight overs by Wahab and
Hasan. He then carved the first delivery
of Wahab’s second over to deep point.
Neither Ben Stokes or Eoin Morgan
could get going and the harder England
tried to hit the ball the worse off they
became. England’s batting depth came
to their aid in the World T20, most notably
against Afghanistan, but there
was no late charge on this occasion.
When David Willey clubbed Sohail
Tanvir through the leg side it was
the first boundary for 7.3 overs - and it
would be the only one of the final 10
overs, an extraordinary statistic whether
you are looking at from an England
or Pakistan perspective.
Given England’s struggles to find
the boundary after the first six overs, it
felt a waste to see Liam Plunkett, who
has shown this season he can clear the
rope from the outset, only come in with
three deliveries remaining and end up
not facing a ball.
Pakistan dealt exclusively in boundaries
until the third ball of the third over
when Latif, who had taken 20 off Chris
Jordan’s first over, tapped a single off
Plunkett. The bowler was so shocked,
that two balls late he flung a bouncer
for five wides down the leg side.
After the fours came the sixes. Sharjeel
deposited Stokes, playing his first
T20I since the World T20 final, over
long leg then twice took Adil Rashid
over the leg-side boundary. Rashid, at
least, had a modicum of revenge when
another attempted smite down the
ground was skied to cover. He should
have had a second wicket, too, but Buttler
missed a stumping chance off Babar
Azam. It summed up England’s night,
as their season ended with a whimper.
(ESPNcricinfo)