Dubai, Sam Billings' breezy maiden half century and skipper Eoin Morgan’s elegant unbeaten 45 steered England to an exciting 14-run victory over Pakistan in the first Twenty20 match of the three match series at the Dubai International Stadium.
England, after posting an impressive 160 for 5, bowled out Pakistan for 146 in 20 overs. Sohail Tanvir (25n.o) and Wahab Riaz (21), with a 45 run partnership in 4.3 overs for the ninth wicket, pulled Pakistan close to the target but their effort went in vain.
England pacers Reece Topley and Liam Plunkett, who took three wickets each backed by left arm spinner Stephen Parry with two wickets, put the brakes on Pakistan’s innings.
Billings' 53 off just 25 balls contained five boundaries and two sixes, while Morgan’s unbeaten 45 off 38 balls had three boundaries. Debutant James Vince chipped in with 41 off 36 balls with six boundaries and one six.
Morgan was involved in two big partnerships and that gave England an impressive total. He put on 76 runs in 10.1 overs with Vince for the fourth wicket and another 65 runs in just six overs with Billings for the fifth wicket.
England won the toss and elected to bat. Pakistan’s Rafatullah Mohammad, at the age of 39, became the oldest player from a Test playing country to make a T20 International debut. Star players Shoaib Malek, due to a finger injury during practice and opener Ahmad Shehzad, who is nursing a stomach upset, were not included in the eleven.
England rested some of their senior players including hard-hitter Jos Buttler.
The drama began from the second over when Pakistan’s left-arm pacer Sohail Tanvir dropped opener Alex Hales’s return catch. Though Tanvir got his hand to it he could not hold on to it in his second attempt. However, in the last ball of that over, Tanvir made Jason Roy pull and top edge to Imran Khan at mid-on for 9. Hales followed in the next over while trying to turn the ball to the leg side off Anwar Ali and the leading edge went to Afridi at mid-off for 8.
England lost their third wicket too at the score on 19 when Moeen Ali fell for a duck offering a simple catch to Umar Akmal at cover off Sohail Tanvir.
Morgan joined Vince and kept the score board moving. Vince played some nice shots including a well-placed cover drive off Ali and a pull off his hips off Wahab Riaz.
Afridi introduced himself in the seventh over. He also brought in left-arm medium pacer Imran Khan, whom Morgan pulled behind square leg for a boundary. Vince too found the gap on the off side to hit Afridi for a boundary. He also slog swept Imran for a six over square leg.
England were 67 for 3 in the first ten overs. Vince picked two boundaries off the 11th over from Afridi. Morgan too lifted Afridi for a six over long on into the crowd in the 13th over. Afridi ended up giving 33 runs from his four overs.
Riaz bowled a brilliant third over giving away just one run and hitting the off stump of Vince off the last ball. Vince paid the price for playing across the line and thus missed his half century on debut by nine runs.
Billings and Morgan steered England past the 100 run mark in the 15th over. Morgan on 37 was dropped by Imran at short third man off Ali. Billings hit Imran for two consecutive boundaries and a six in the 18th over. He played many innovative shots and even scooped Riaz for a six over fine leg. In the last over, Billings reached his maiden half century off 24 balls and got run out off the last ball of the innings.
Needing a run rate of eight runs per over, Pakistan would have lost opener Rafatullah for four had wicketkeeper Billing managed to hold on to the upper cut off Chris Jordan off the fourth ball of the first over. Left-arm pacer Reece Topley made opener Sarfraz Ahmad sweep straight to Liam Plunkett at deep backward square leg for 1 with the third ball of the second over. Plunkett then went on to take the prize wicket of Mohammad Hafeez with the last ball of his first over by making him pull to Topley at deep square leg for 7.
Rafatullah too fell in the sixth over to Plunkett, going for a pull and edging to Billings for 16 and Pakistan slipped to 25 for 3. Slow left-arm spinner Stephen Parry had Mohammad Rizwan clean bowled for 6.
Shoaib Maqsood lifted Moeen Ali for a six over long on. Umar Akmal too played some lovely placing shots. He also hit Perry for a huge six when his innings ended in a run out with both the batsmen sprinting together towards the non strikers end.
Afridi spooned an easy catch to Roy and mid-off for a duck. When a well settled Maqsood too got stumped off Moeen for 24, Pakistan slipped to 74 for 6 in the 12th over. Sohail Tanvir and Wahab Riaz through some big hits guided Pakistan to a stage of 30 runs off last 12 balls. In the last over, Pakistan needed 21 runs but fell short of the target.
