Key events
WICKET! Banton c Usman Khan b Usman Tariq 2 (England 58-4)
Tariq strikes with the first ball of his spell! He sends down a googly, Banton looks to cut, feathers,, and Khan takes a really good catch. Brook has 45 out of 58 runs, which is to say it looks like him or nothing.
Tariq into the attack; Banton is the only England batter to have faced him before…
7th over: England 58-3 (Brook 45, Banton 2) Target 165 Shadab into the attack and Banton misses with a reverse-sweep, then takes one to long-on, Brook responds with a tap to square-leg, and they dash through for a well-run two. Next ball, he runs down looking to hit out of the continent, the bowlers pulls back his length, and the England captain escapes with an edge just past his stumps for two.
6th over: England 53-3 (Brook 41, Banton 1) Target 165 Nawaz replaces Ayub and, after Banton gets off the mark with a single, Brook turns tow into the on-side, then goes down on one knee to launch over short fine for four. If he stays in, England win; if he goes, they’re in trouble. Meantime, he twinkles down, then crunches over backward point for four more, and there are still two balls to come; the first is checked down the ground, just missing Banton’s swede and the bowler’s hands and the second … is astonished over long-on for six. Seventeen off the over, and England’s captain has decided that it’s time for him to be the hero. But can he avoid the hubris?
5th over: England 36-3 (Brook 20, Banton 0) Target 165 Afridi pins Banton, whose dressing-room nickname is, I hope and pray, Pato, on the pad, but the ball pitched outside the line so the appeal is muted and, when rejected, unreivewed.
WICKET! Bethell c Farhan v Shaheen 8 (England 35-3)
Regular wickets are the key for Pakistan and this is another, Bethell freeing arms but not hitting hard enough, Farhan taking a decent catch running around the fence at deep square.
5th over: England 35-2 (Brook 25, Bethell 8) Target 165 A single to Bethell, then Brook gives himself just a littlebittaroom to assault Afridi through cover for four. He then adds a further single, before Bethell again picks out a fielder with a nicely hit drive…
4th over: England 29-2 (Brook 20, Bethell 7) Target 165 Time for spin with Saim Ayub into the attack and, after a single to each batter, Bethell goes back to wait fir him, hauling from middle-and-off through midwicket for four. in a way, he’s the new Joe Root – l’havdil elef havdalot – accumulating quickly with Proper Cricket Shots. Of course, as I type, he top-edges a slog-sweep, and this is going to be … dropped?! Oh my days, that was an absolute gimme, but at short fine leg, Tariq panics, fumbles and drops. Eeeeesh. They run one then, to rub it in, Brook makes sure to devastate a straight drive for four to make it 11 off the over.
3rd over: England 17-2 (Brook 14, Bethell 0) Target 165 Bethell drives to the man at mid-off, a handsome shot that earns nothing. then does likewise to cover. A whip off the hip though, gets him off the mark with one, and I’m not sure Pakistan will be benching Afridi again any time soon.
WICKET! Buttler c Usman Khan 2 (England 17-2)
Buttler’s misery continues. This time, he takes a cross-batted swipe, tickling an under-edge behind, and these early wickets are exactly what Pakistan need to defend a below-par total. Shaheen is buzzing…
3rd over: England 17-1 (Buttler 2, Brook 15) Target 165 Brook takes one, then Buttler pulls out with Afridi in his delivery stride – that should calm him down – before squirting two away through midwicket.
2nd over: England 14-1 (Buttler 0, Brook 14) Target 165 It’s Mirza from the other end and, when he directs his loosener at the pads, Brook glances away adroitly for four through backward square. Two dots follow, then a wobbler that moves away from Brook, who presents the face to no avail; naturally, he waits for the next one and carts a slower ball for six over deep square. His eyes are just absolutely dynamite – he didn’t get all of that, but he picked the length so early, he was in the perfect position to clear the boundary anyway. A single completes the over, and the England captain fancies this.
1st over: England 3-1 (Buttler 0, Brook 3) Target 165 With only one ball of the powerplay gone, Brook sends himself in at three, which makes sense, and he’s soon off the mark with a half-batter into the on-side for two. Afridi is tearing in now, seeing Brook back away and slanting a wide one across him, then one fended off the body adds a single. This is seriously intense stuff, all the more so when the last delivery of the over is a jaffa, bouncing and seaming away from the well-beaten Buttler. The bowler thinks it’s out and wants a review; the captain does not.
WICKET! Salt c Usman Khan b Shaheen Shah Afridi 0 (England 0-1)
And it’s a first-baller! Salt expects it to come in, it goes away, and he catches the inside half; the keeper dives right to pouch a pretty routine grab.
Afridi has the ball, and here we go!
I can’t wait to see how Buttler and Salt, which is an ampersand away from sounding like a maker of luxury hampers which would be elevated by some chilli McCoy’s and cola bottles, go against Afridi with pace in the pitch. Happily, I don’t have to, because we’re almost ready to go again.
England will be very happy with that. On Cricinfo, their win probability is only 43.31%, and perhaps the Pakistan spinners will be too good. But if England start well, 165 will look a pretty meagre total to chase, and even if they don’t, six or seven an over for the first bit gives them plenty of scope to do enough whacking at the end to get home.
Pakistan finish on 164-9, setting England 165 to win
WICKET! Shadab Khan run out (Bethell/Buttler) 23
Bethell collects on the midwicket fence, throws to the keeper’s end, and Buttler does the rest.
20th over: Pakistan 165-8 (Shadab 23, Mirza 2) Curran to finish off and Mirza knocks his first ball to Brook at cover who sets, aims, shies … and misses. Had he hit, it was gone, but England’s fielding hasn’t been at its best today. Still, the’d have taken this, and two well-run twos don’t change that – the second one sees Overton slide, grab and fling superbly, only to miss the stumps when again, had he hit, it was miles out. Two balls to go and Shadab flicks the first of them for four, then plays a similar shot to the second, They take one, then turn for another…
18th over: Pakistan 154-8 (Shadab 14, Mirza 1) A single to Mirza, then Shadab gives himself room to attack a slower ball, crashing it for four through backward point.
WICKET! Shaheen Shah Afridi c Curran b Archer 2 (Pakistan 149-8)
Slower ball, Shaheen swipes it towards deep square, and running around from deep backward, Curran leaps to his right, half facing away from the shot, holding a really good grab before taking care not to step on to the boundary. He is a cricketing Swiss army knife.
19th over: Pakistan 149-7 (Shadab 10, Shaheen 2) Archer returns and his first two deliveries yield a single apiece…
18th over: Pakistan 147-7 (Shadab 9, Shaheen 1) Hat-trick ball, Dawson goes full and straight … but Shaheen digs out into the on-side for one. What an over, though, seven runs, two wickets, and Dawson finishes with an estimable 2-24.
REVIEW!
Laugh! Another that’s plumb, and Dawson has two wickets in an over that’s also seen his captain grass a regulation catch.
WICKET! Mohammad Nawaz lbw b Dawson 0 (Pakistan 146-7)
Dawson’s on a hatty! Another full one but this time arrowed in, and Nawaz looks to flick across the line, misses, and this one is so dead it was never alive.
WICKET! Usman Khan c Overton b Dawson 8 (Pakistan 146-6)
Dawson tosses one up and Usman has no choice but to assault it, on to one knee to heave high down the ground and straight to Overton at long-off.
18th over: Pakistan 146-5 (Shadab 9, Usman 8) Dawson returns and Shadab wallops towards cover, where the ball bursts Brook’s hands and runs on for four – which tells us just how hard that was hit, but even so, what an oversight! I think that’s three boundaries England have given away with careless fielding, it might be four – if they don’t win from here, there’s a reason why. A wide and a one follow…
17th over: Pakistan 140-5 (Shadab 4, Usman 8) Usman gets going immediately with a pulled two, then gets down on one knee to monster Rashid’s final delivery over midwicket for six. Rashid finishes with 1-31.
WICKET! Fakhar Zaman c Dawson b Rashid 25 (Pakistan 132-5)
Another googly, Fakhar goes again, and slices an attempted slog-sweep high into the sky and, running in from deep backward, Dawson slides under a really good catch. England’s spinners are in the team for their bowling and whacking, but they’re all reliable in the field too.
17th over: Pakistan 132-4 (Zaman 25, Shadab 4) Rashid returns to finish off and Zaman goes hard at his first delivery, making room to slosh doewn the ground for six; naturally, the bowler doesn’t panic, responding with a cunning googly for a dot,
16th over: Pakistan 126-4 (Zaman 19, Shadab 4) Shadab, you face, is what Zaman says to the new man, in my imagination at least, and he responds well, slashing his first ball over the infield for four to point.
REVIEW!
Ahahahaha, are you kidding me? The autopsy tells us that which we already knew and, somewhere in Australia, Shane Watson nods knowingly.
WICKET! Sahibzada Farhan lbw b Overton 63
A yorker on middle-and-off, Farhan belatedly tries to flick away, misses, and wears it on the shin. That’s so dead it’s already in the afterlife.
16th over: Pakistan 122-3 (Farhan 63, Zaman 19) Overton replaces Jacks and Farhan waits for his second ball, slapping over long-on where the boundary is well in, compensating for an outfield that’s been soaked by rain … and it’s six, just. The shot he plays to the next delivery, though, is a beauty, Farhan making room and stretching to cross-bat powerfully past wide mid-off – that’s abelter of a shot.
15th over: Pakistan 112-3 (Farhan 53, Zaman 19) Curran returns and cedes singles from his first four deliveries, but can he get out of the over without conceding a boundary? Ball five is a dot, Farhan baseballing to the man mid-off, then the sixth is hit down the ground, but Curran fields and shies, hitting the stumps, but the batter was home. Pakistan can’t allow many more overs like this one, just five runs from it.
“Surely Pakistan will be disappointed with this so far, Daniel?” wonders John Ryan. “I was thinking they’d need about 190 considering their batting, the pitch, the opponent and the fact that they chose to bat first … they need to get a move on surely?!”
Agree. It may well be possible to win with 160-170, but I’d definitely want a fair few more.
14th over: Pakistan 107-3 (Farhan 50, Zaman 17) Zaman makes room to drive, forcing Jacks back over his head … for the first six of the innings, then after a single, Farhan slog-sweeps over midwicket, the sound resounding around the globe – open your window, you’ll hear it in a sec. A two and a one that raise Farhan’s 50 – off 37 deliveries – follow, and the sprint for the line is on. But have Pakistan left themselves too much to do?
13th over: Pakistan 91-3 (Farhan 41, Zaman 10) Rashid returns at the other end and Archer encroaches out of the circle, meaning a no ball; Rashid delivers a beauty of a googly to turn a free hit into a dot. And he’s really finding grip here, three more dots following, but after a single to Zaman, Farhan cracks a sweep for four. Pakistan are moving, while England are ticking.
12th over: Pakistan 84-3 (Farhan 36, Zaman 9) Jacks replaces Rashid and, after a single to Farhan, a ball at the pads allows a glance for four, Zaman off the mark. Then Bethell, a gun fielder, runs in, misses his pick-up, and megs himself; four more, when all England need to do is behave sensibly. Two singles follow, Jacks still glaring at Bethell as he returns to the field; if this was a cartoon, he’d be shaking his fist.
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