ENGLAND END WITH WHIMPER
Sharjeel blitz after batsmen flop
The home summer ended amid a carnival mood in Manchester last night, but for eoin Morgan’s team — stuck in the kitchen while everyone had fun next door — it was the wrong kind of party.
After carelessly failing to complete a one-day whitewash in Cardiff on Sunday, england were treated to the kind of white-ball the tourists rattled their way to a nine- wicket victory with an emphatic 31 balls to spare.
And the sight of one of those fans running on shortly before the end to attempt a selfie with Morgan summed up an evening that careered out of england’s control. The best that can be said here was that this was a horrible orrible aberration.
Pakistan were brilliant, nt, bowling with nous and d guile, then batting with a fearlessness that suggested they were operating on a different surface from the one on which england had d scraped 135 foror seven. Their tourour has ended as it began with the first Test at Lord’s — on an unexpected high.
Whether england were distracted by the ongoing debate over the Bangladesh tour, exhausted at the end of another long season, or simply victims of a bad day at the office, was open to debate. What was undeniable was that Pakistan assessed conditions far more astutely, and revelled in the kind of atmosphere they have barely tasted since being forced out of their homeland seven years ago by terrorists.
By the time Sharjeel Khan skied Adil Rashid to Moeen Ali at cover to depart for 59 from 36 balls, he and Khalid Latif had put on 107 for the first wicket in 11.1 overs. The rest was an exercise in box-ticking.
‘With the benefit of hindsight I’d have bowled first and chased in the evening with the dew,’ said Morgan. ‘We’re not a timid team, but none of us caught fire. It’s hard to believe it’s the same team that scored 444 a few games ago.’
The england innings had been a curious beast that threatened much but delivered little. At 53 without loss from the six-over powerplay, they looked set to
sensend Pakistan home with one final limited-oversovers shellacking.sh But Jason Roy and Alex hales, the only england player to find his timing, fell in quick succession, and Pakistan worked out that variations of pace on a pitch that gripped was the way to go.
The tactic worked like a dream. And with the Old Trafford boundaries pushed to their limit, there were no easy sixes. Indeed, after Roy had creamed left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir over wide mid-on in the fourth over, there were no sixes at all.
The remainder of the innings played out like a relic of england’s bad old days. Only three fours were hit after the powerplay — two by Jos Buttler, one by David Willey — while a succession of batsmen were caught on the fence from shots that on a smaller ground might have brought them maximum reward. Joe Root uppercut hasan Ali to third man, Buttler carved the impressive Wahab Riaz to deep cover and Ben Stokes was caught on the pull at deep square leg.
When Willey pulled Tanvir to the deep midwicket fence in the 18th over, it was england’s first four in 45 deliveries. It was underwhelming stuff, and their total was their lowest after batting first in a home Twenty20 international for four years.
Sharjeel and Latif immediately put the chase into perspective, thrashing 14 fours and a six in the powerplay, and treating england’s bowlers with contempt. Chris Jordan’s only over, carted for 16 by Latif, summed up the carnage.
Stokes bowled his first over in Twenty20 internationals since West Indian Carlos Brathwaite hit him for four successive sixes to clinch the World Twenty20 title at Kolkata in April. This time there was only one six, a pull over fine leg by Sharjeel. But, for england, it was little consolation.