We’re still on an upward curve says the skipper after 9-wicket battering

EOIN MORGAN insisted he was still happy with where England were as a limited-overs side despite ending the international summer with this nine-wicket hammering by Pakistan.

Morgan’s men were simply outclassed in this one-off T20 in Manchester, posting just 135-7 batting first and seeing Pakistan finish their tour on a high by cantering to their target with 31 balls to spare.

Sharjeel Khan, with 59 from 36 deliveries, and Khalid Latif, making the same score in an unbeaten 42-ball knock, made light work of the run chase as England followed up their defeat in the final ODI at Cardiff four days earlier with another loss.

Despite the positive strides made in short-form cricket over the past 18 months – including a record 444-3 in the third ODI at Trent Bridge last week – it has been a poor end to the summer from Morgan and his team.

“I still believe we are on an upward curve in 50-over and T20 cricket,” said the captain.

“We are not a timid batting team – we play quite aggressively. But none of us seemed to catch fire or get going.

“We needed about 185 on that wicket. It’s hard to believe it’s the same team that scored 444 a few games ago. But it’s my fault with the toss. Our guys thrive on T20 cricket, play golf on the morning of the game, chill out in the lead-up. We can’t use After-the-Lord’s-Mayor’s-Show as an excuse.

“Pakistan outplayed us in the conditions. But I still like to think things are really bright at the moment, there’s a huge amount of ability and fearlessness in our squad.”

That fearlessness was not in evidence as England, who collapsed after posting 53 without loss from the first six overs, hit just one six in their innings and one solitary David Willey boundary in the final 10 overs.

For that Pakistan deserve credit for some excellent bowling, particularly Imad Wasim, whose spin removed openers Jason Roy and Alex Hales, and Wahab Riaz, the fast bowler reaching 96 miles per hour with the delivery that did for Jos Buttler in the 14th over.

Indeed, Wahab’s 3-18 were career-best figures in this format and he was glad Pakistan could end their tour on a high after drawing the Test series against England 2-2.

This was also a first match as captain for Sarfraz Ahmed, who took over from Shahid Afridi following Pakistan’s elimination from the World T20 in India back in March.

Wahab said: “Sarfraz was very concerned about this game, we had to win this game and give everything we’ve got. I enjoy playing here, we have enjoyed the tour, it’s been good for the team and individually.”

Sarfraz said: “We had to play positive cricket, we won the last game and morale is very high.The whole tour was very good.We were great in Test cricket and unfortunately we didn’t win the ODI series. But I said we wanted to finish on a high note and I’m so glad we managed that.”

star man

IMAD WASIM – Pakistan: His spin accounted for England’s big-hitting openers Jason Roy and Alex Hales and put the home side on the back foot, a position from which they didn’t recover