Dubai: The Twenty20 series between Pakistan and England took off on Thursday, igniting huge interest in the three match showdown.
With Pakistan scoring a narrow eight-run victory after England almost reached their target of 145, it is set up nicely for the second match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium tonight.
"The thing about Twenty20 is that it fluctuates so much," said England skipper Stuart Broad.
"We were in a position to win. We needed 8.8 an over at one point, but then Ravi got it down to seven, but in Twenty20 you never think it is in the bag as one over can change a match."
Broad felt Pakistan pacer Umar Gul tilted the balance.
"Gul is one of the best Twenty20 bowlers in the world and he showed his class. We probably didn't play him as well as we could have done. Gul bowled reverse swing and brilliant yorkers," he said.
"We need to show as an England team that we can improve and make sure we come back on Saturday right in the zone again."
Broad believes his team did well to restrict Pakistan to 144 batting first.
Great experience
"We were confident of being able to chase 145 but didn't keep an ‘in' batsman at the wicket for long enough. Somebody needed to bat through to the end," he said.
"But it was a great experience for the guys and you learn from your mistakes. Hopefully we'll put them right next time.
"Pakistan batted quite nicely in the first three or four overs and made it difficult for us. Twenty20 is a very different game to one-day cricket. There's not as much value for holding length and sticking in there.
"We'll certainly review the game. We bowled pretty well and fielded not as well as we have done in the one-dayers, but we were happy to keep them to 144.
"You have to give credit to Pakistan the way they finished their bowling. We probably have to look at how we're going to score in those last five overs. We certainly have the guys in our team that can do that. You saw Jonny Bairstow at Cardiff [against India] smash it all around, and Jos Buttler's record is absolutely fantastic."
Broad defended Buttler for getting out to his favourite shot, trying to beat the short fine leg fielder.
"Jos is renowned for his little flick. But it just turned out it was a slightly slower ball and it didn't clear [Saeed] Ajmal by a foot," he said.
"We needed someone to bat all the way through.
"You could tell that from the way Misbah [ul-Haq] and [Shoaib] Malek batted, took a bit of time out of the game, got themselves in and then picked up a couple of boundaries towards the end.
"But we could have won that game almost down to the last over and it's important we keep positive about it."
