Pakistan signed their cricket tour of England with a five-run win in their third and final Twenty20 international match to tie the series 1-1 on Tuesday, with veteran batsman Mohammad Hafeez setting up victory with an 86 of 52 balls.
Hafeez, 39, tied his best T20 score, in his 94th match in the format, to help Pakistan to 190-4 after being put at bat at Old Trafford. The key to the innings was Hafeez’s 100-run partnership for the third wicket with 19-year-old Haider Ali, who hit 54 of 33 balls in his T20 debut.
Moeen Ali starred in England’s response with 61 of 33 balls, but was one of the two fields to fall in a superb penultimate envelope thrown by Wahab Riaz (2-26).
England needed 12 of the last two balls and, although Tom Curran hit a six in the first, he swayed and missed the last delivery of the innings, a Haris Rauf yorker, to leave the hosts 185-8.
It was Pakistan’s first win of the tour in their final game and gives the team something to show for a two-month trip their players spent in an isolated setting, mostly in a hotel.
Pakistan lost a series of climatic tests 1-0, then was defeated in the second T20 match after rain washed away the first.
Hafeez was named player of the series, having also scored 69 in the second game. His 86 contained six sixes and was the highest individual score by a Pakistani player against England in this format, equaling his score against South Africa at Centurion in 2013.
Haider’s debut hit, hitting a six from his second ball, will also be encouraging for Pakistan as they look to build a team to challenge in next year’s T20 World Cup. His fifty came from just 28 balls and he is the first Pakistani player to hit half a century in his T20 debut.
Starter Tom Banton again impressed for England with 45, but was left without captain Eoin Morgan (10) in a confusion with a single to leave England 65-3 in seven overs. The Pakistan players cheered loudly, knowing the importance of the captain’s wicket in the form of England, and the hosts lost ground at regular intervals in the chase.
“It’s games like this that we want to play to learn as much as we can,” Morgan said of his low-strength team.
England’s white ball team then plays the three-game ODI and T20 series against Australia to conclude their international summer of cricket played in stadiums with no spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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