Moeen stars with bat and ball as England return to form and crush Pakistan in second T20 clash
England returned to form after losing the opening match of the T20 series by thrashing Pakistan by 45 runs at Headingley yesterday.
Jos Buttler, returning to the side as captain in place of the rested Eoin Morgan, topscored for with 59 as England posted 200. Liam Livingstone (38 off 23 balls) and all-rounder Moeen Ali (36 from 16) made sizeable contributions to hand the visitors a target of 10 runs an over.
In reply, Pakistan seemed on track at 71-1 in the ninth over before losing five wickets for 34 runs. They eventually screeched to a halt at 155-9.
Moeen delivered with ball, picking up the scalps of Mohammad Hafeez and Fakhar Zaman in the middle over to finish with 2-32. Seamer Saqib Mahmood (3-33) and spinner Adil Rashid (2-30) did the rest in a clinical win. Leg-spinner Matt Parkinson was the most economical bowler on display, picking up 1-25 from his four overs.
Captain Buttler was particularly pleased with the way his spinners controlled the innings. “Rashid’s been fantastic for a long time and Parky has earned his chance, they bowled fantastically well in tandem,” he said. “It was great to be back and nice to contribute. We asked a lot of the guys and they improved on the other night.”
Pakistan started the chase started steadily, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan adding 50 inside six overs.
Rashid then arrived on the scene and tossed it up, turning it past Sohaib Maqsood’s outside edge and Buttler completed the stumping. Rashid and Parkinson then proceeded to strangle the run-rate.
Earlier, after the hosts lost Jason Roy and Dawid Malan in the opening three overs, Buttler and Ali restored order with a quick 67-run partnership.
Ali eventually fell for 36, scooping fast bowler Mohammad Hasnain to mid-off.
Buttler picked out mid-off for Hasnain’s second wicket of the innings, but Livingstone, fresh from scoring England’s fastest hundred, went on to produce another entertaining knock.
The right-handed batsman was run out for 38 off 23 balls before the lower order added another 35 off the last four overs to take England’s score to 200 for the second consecutive game.
Pakistan captain Babar said: “We gave away too many runs, perhaps 30 too many, and weren’t able to carry through the momentum we built at the top.”
The teams now head to Manchester for tomorrow’s series decider.