Pakistan vs England LIVE: Cricket score and result as Phil Salt blasts England to victory in Lahore
England trail seven-match series 3-2 and must beat Pakistan to avoid series defeat
England have no room for manoeuvre if they want to be triumphant in their seven-match T20I series against Pakistan. The hosts won the fifth game on Wednesday evening in a low scoring contest and now lead the series 3-2 with two matches to play.
Batting first, Pakistan set England a reachable target of 147 from their 20 overs but a collapse in the powerplay saw them fall to 31-3 with Alex Hales, Phil Salt and Ben Duckett all going cheaply. England managed to recover thanks to Moeen Ali’s 51 not out but they required 15 runs from the final over and some brilliant death bowling from debutant Aamir Jamal saw them fall eight runs short of victory.
This defeat comes on the back of another failed chase in the fourth T20I where England lost by four runs after Reece Topley ran himself out with five balls left in the innings. The tourists should have won both games and the consequence of these losses mean England must win the final two matches in Lahore to be victorious in the series. Can they get the job done this evening?
Follow all the action from the sixth T20I between Pakistan and England in Lahore:
‘Must-win games’ good practice for World Cup
England’s current captain Moeen Ali says that the last two fixtures in this seven-match series will be good practice with how to deal with the pressure of must-win games during a major tournament.
England know they have to win both of these last two games if they want to clinch a series victory against Pakistan ahead of the T20 World Cup starting in October.
“Going into the T20 World Cup, must-win games are good. For our team now, it’s a semi-final and a final.” said Moeen,
“We’ve got to win to stay in it. It’s going to be really good to see where the boys are at. There’s pressure in international cricket all the time, so it’s great to see how we react.”
England failure to chase down Pakistan labelled ‘disappointing’ by Moeen Ali
Moeen Ali branded England’s Twenty20 batting a disappointment after they saw a second chase against Pakistan go off the rails in the space of four days.
Having failed to make 167 in Karachi on Sunday, the tourists lost track of an even slimmer target as they were unable to make 146 at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.
Moeen did his best to drag the result back with a captain’s innings of 51 not in 37 balls but he lost a last-over battle of wills with debutant seamer Aamer Jamal, who secured a five-run win for his side.
Phil Salt, Alex Hales, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook made just 18 between them as the top six imploded, while Dawid Malan contributed a scratchy 36. Their efforts left Moeen frustrated by a lack of game awareness.
England failure to chase down Pakistan labelled ‘disappointing’ by Moeen Ali
The tourists were unable to make 146 in their Twenty20 chase against Pakistan.
England team news
England white-ball captain, Jos Buttler, could feature though it seems unlikely he will be risked as he continues rehabilitation from a calf strain. Buttler said on Wednesday that he could “play tomorrow” if it was a World Cup game but as it isn’t England are likely to keep him on the sidelines.
The tourists could bring back Liam Dawson to boost their spin options and there will likely to be changes to the seam attack with Mark Wood and Chris Woakes - both recently returned from injury themselves - the obvious picks to miss out.
Pakistan team news
Mohammad Rizwan didn’t field during England’s chase in the fifth T20 after being hit on the back by a stray throw, with Mohammad Haris taking his spot behind the stumps. Rizwan seems hit to play but with the T20 World Cup just around the corner Pakistan may take the opportunity to rest their opening batter.
Haris Rauf is another player who may be due a break, with Mohammad Hasnain and Shahnawaz Dahani options to come in to replace him but Naseem Shah won’t be involved.
He has been discharged from hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia but has since tested positive for Covid-19.
Buttler believes reducing number of county games could raise standards
England white-ball captin, Jos Buttler, went on the BBC’s The Sports Desk Podcast and spoke about the proposed reduction in County Championship and T20 Blast matches put forward by Sir Andrew Strauss’ high performance review and said he believes the proposal could raise playing standards and benefit England.
The review suggests red-ball games could be cut from 14 to 10 in a season and when asked by if he thought reducing the number of County Championship and domestic T20 matches could help improve the England team, Buttler said: “Yeah, I do.”
He added: “I do feel a reduction in games would allow players to prepare properly, recover properly and put a lot more emphasis on those games.
“The pressure on those games would be a lot higher and I think the standard could potentially be higher for that. I can see how that would see more high performance, in that sense.
“There are some players who may only play one format of the game and they want to play as many games as possible in that format, so I can see how it’s not straightforward,
“But if you were just looking at a high performance view on it, I think 10 games would be a good number of fixtures.”
Moeen Ali heroics in vain as Pakistan take series lead over England
Stand-in skipper Moeen Ali came close to hitting England out of trouble at the death only to be bested by a debutant as Pakistan took control of the Twenty20 series for the first time.
The hosts were bowled out for just 145 in Lahore, Mark Wood excelling again as he took three for 20 and hit 95mph, but an England batting line-up missing the likes of Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Liam Livingstone misfired for the second game in a row.
Moeen took them within one blow of victory, hitting 51 not out in 37 balls, but newcomer Aamer Jamal sent down some superb wide yorkers after being trusted with the final over of the match and closed out a five-run win.
Having failed to make 167 last time out they finished on 139 for seven, slipping 3-2 behind with two to play.
Moeen Ali heroics in vain as Pakistan take series lead over England
The tourists failed to chase 146 in Lahore
England arrive in Lahore
England have arrived at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore ahead of today’s sixth T20I, who will line-up for the visitors later today?
Will Jos Buttler return to lead the team (unlikely)? Will England risk Mark Wood and Chris Woakes in back-to-back games? Will spinner Liam Dawson be recalled or is Olly Stone going to get another game?
We will find out soon enough. Start of play today is scheduled for 3.30pm with the toss and team news expected at 3pm.
Pakistan vs England
Hello and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the penultimate T20 of England’s seven-match series against Pakistan.
Moeen Ali continues to deputise for captain Jos Buttler - whose fitness will not be risked ahead of the World Cup next month - but faces a difficult task as England have entered the last chance saloon. They trail Pakistan 3-2 after throwing away the two most recent matches from strong positions and need to win both remaining games to clinch the series.
Last time out Pakistan batted first and were restricted to just 146 from their 20 overs leaving England as favourites to win the game. However an early collapse saw them stumble to 31-3 before Moeen himself led the comeback. He ended on 51 not out but England failed to knock off the 15 runs required from the last over and gave the hosts the lead in the series.
On a positive note Mark Wood seems to be fit and firing ahead of the major tournament in Australia and should play a key role in today’s proceedings. England have been getting themselves in positions where they should win more games and if they can get over the line today it’ll set up a series decider on Sunday.
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