Mohammad Hafeez and rookie Haider Ali came half a century before Pakistani bowlers managed to restrain England despite Moeen Ali’s fireworks.
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Moeen also had success with the ball, throwing Fakhar Zaman with his first ball to give England an early lead. Babar Azam also fell before the end of the Powerplay, launched by Tom Curran, but 19-year-old Haider Ali made sure the players couldn’t get to the top.
After hitting his second ball for six, Haider continued to play freely and began to build a great partnership with Mohammad Hafeez. Haider raised his fifty with just 28 balls, becoming the first Pakistani hitter to score half a century in T20I’s debut.
Then Hafeez took over, running his own half-century from 31 balls before Chris Jordan threw Haider with a yorker to break the association, which was worth exactly 100 runs.
However, the 38-year-old hitter didn’t budge and finished the innings undefeated on 86 * of 52 balls with four fours and six sixes for Pakistan to score 190/4.
Shaheen Afridi knocked out Jonny Bairstow in the first over to put Pakistan’s efforts on the ball off to a dream start, and Dawid Malan scored just 7 before Fakhar took an excellent limit catch to send him back to the locker room.
A mix-up between Tom Banton and Eoin Morgan cost the England captain his window, while the young starter made liberal use of the reverse sweep to keep the score moving at a good pace.
However, Haris Rauf caught Banton up front in the next over, and the 21-year-old was four runs from what would have been a second fifty in the series.
Moeen Ali then assumed the lead role for England, while Billings looked to rotate the strike before dodging a catch off Wahab Riaz. The all-rounder hit Shadab Khan for three sixes in his last over on his way to 50 percent from 25 balls, before Lewis Gregory managed to find the consecutive ball limit.
Another 10 runs from the 18 over left England needing 20 runs from the final two overs, but the experienced Wahab produced a superb over, conceding just three runs, as well as scoring a straight hit to get Jordan out and grab a catch back for fire Moeen. .
Tom Curran kept the game alive until the very end, hitting the penultimate delivery over cover six to drop another needed final ball high. But he was unable to make contact with Haris Rauf’s great yorker, giving Pakistan a 5-run win and leaving the series tied 1-1.
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