 England's tour of UAE continues to swivel back and forth as Pakistan won
the first T20 match after a close contest. Pakistan, the 'home' side, will be
looking to seal the series against the No. 1 ranked T20 team in the second T20
international at Dubai on Saturday.
Pakistan managed to come out on top after a topsy-turvy performance that saw the
balance of the match tilt multiple times in each team's favor.
Click for Live Score Card of Pakistan Vs England
While Misbah ul Haq, the captain, heaved a sigh of relief after winning the match,
he knows that there are plenty of improvements to be made. After a solid start,
the batsmen threw their wickets away in a display of brainless batting. Four wickets
fell in a heap, leaving Pakistan 73-5.
Pleasantly though, the much-criticized Shoaib Malik came to the rescue
with a timely innings of 39. A long batting line up will be expected to deliver
the good in the coming match as well while the bowlers, as usual, will have
plenty of expectations attached with them. It will be interesting to see if
Pakistan ring any changes as Junaid Khan was taken for plenty in his first three
overs, only to bowl a splendid final over to secure the win.
England will be ruing their missed opportunities during the match in
which they, yet again, allowed Pakistani spinners to get on top and strangle
the scoring rate.
Kevin Pietersen, being the senior batsmen, will look to score more freely to
avoid a repeat of Thursday's debacle. The team management will also discuss
strategies to overcome the slow scoring during the middle overs, and how to
counter Mohammad Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal.
The bowlers looked reasonably in control after the initial onslaught by Awais
Zia. Graeme Swann, the pick of the bowlers with three wickets, though
would want to put in a better fielding show than he did in the first match.
The match starts at 8.00pm and should draw a sizable crowd, similar to what was
witnessed in the first match.
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