DERN BASH
Last-over drama as England win series
JADE DERNBACH slid, footballer-like, on hi s knees in delight after bowling Misbah-ul-haq with the last ball of England’s tour to provide an unlikely final twist to an unpredictable two-month tale.
England clawed their way to a winning f i nale when t hey clinched a five-run Twenty20 victory that seemed to be beyond them when Pakistan needed 23 from the final 19 balls with seven wickets intact.
Yet Misbah, who now, incredibly, is fighting to save his job as Pakistan captain, became bogged down i n the face of superb English bowling and the tigerish fielding that has epitomised the limited-overs leg of this tour.
Pakistan still needed 17 from the last two overs, but Stuart Broad produced a near-perfect penultimate over spoiled only by a misfield from Jonny Bairstow that gifted Misbah four runs.
That did not matter when Dernbach ensured that 13 was too many from the final over for Pakistan — Bairstow making amends by running out Shahid Afridi — and the Surrey bowler’s joyful slide signalled a limitedovers double.
The dynamic effort in the field was in contrast to a difficult batting effort from England. No- one struggled more than Eoin Morgan, who scratched around for 11 almost painful deliveries before he was put out of his misery by one of his own team-mates to leave him agonising over his place on the plane to Sri Lanka in 11 days’ time.
The lack of form of Morgan, who could have been dismissed twice before he was run out by Kevin Pietersen for nine, was indicative of a return of England’s travails against Pakistan’s array of spinners and almost cost them this Twenty20 series decider.
The tour finale may have gone England’s way to give them both the 50-over and short-form series but the sub-plot was the race for the last batting place in a Test squad named today.
So wretched have Morgan’s fortunes been here that he has a highest score of just 31 from 17 innings in all forms of cricket.
It would take a serious leap of faith by the selectors to pick him today. But there are no such worries for Pietersen, who left behind his miserable Test form to bat like a man inspired, carrying his bat here last night while all around him suffered as England crept to a just-about-competitive 129 for six.
I t says everything about English values that this tour will still be remembered more for the 3-0 Test thrashing by Pakistan than the comeback which has seen England win 4-0 in 50-over cricket and now 2-1 in T20.
Yet nobody has done more to facilitate that change than Pietersen who, quite suddenly, is batting as well as he has done at any time in his career.
Two mighty centuries came in the one-day series and last night he assessed the conditions shrewdly before setting out to bat through the 20 overs.
When Pietersen smashed a full toss from Aizaz Cheema for six off the final ball of the innings he had hit an unbeaten 62 to almost single-handedly lift England just about to respectability.
The fact that Pietersen faced just 52 of the 120 balls delivered was a measure of the struggles of his team-mates both to give their in-form colleague the strike and prosper themselves.
If Morgan is to miss out today then the man who could take his place in the 16-man party for the two-test tour is Bairstow, who has impressed here with a temperament that belongs on the big stage.
But he, like so many before him on this trip, found Saeed Ajmal’s variations almost impossible to read and became one of four victims for the brilliant spinner.
Morgan, Bairstow and Samit Patel, who may travel to Sri Lanka as third spinner, will learn their fates today, but for now England can reflect, at least since the Test series ended, on a job well done.
paul.newman@dailymail.co.uk