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| Third Twenty20, Emirates Old Trafford |
| Pakistan 190-4 (20 overs): Hafeez 86 (52), Haider 54 (33); Jordan 2-29 |
| England 185-8 (20 overs): Moeen 61 (33); Wahab 2-26 |
| Pakistan wins by five races; drawn series 1-1 |
| Scorekeeper |
Pakistan beat England by five runs in a gripping Twenty20 third international game that came down to the final ball, meaning the series is tied 1-1.
Chasing 191, England needed 12 of the last two balls and Tom Curran hit the penultimate delivery of six.
England needed another high to win, but Haris Rauf delivered a perfect wide yorker that Curran couldn’t hit.
England were 69-4 before Moeen Ali’s 61-of-33 balls gave the hosts hope.
He was caught and thrown with a necessary 17 of eight balls: Wahab Riaz threw a brilliant 19th that cost just three runs during which he also ran out of Chris Jordan.
Curran and Adil Rashid were left with the urge to score an unlikely 17 in the final and, despite Curran’s efforts, they came up short.
Mohammad Hafeez had scored 86 of 52 balls for Pakistan, while 19-year-old rookie Haider Ali had hit 53 of 33 balls.
The defeat ends England’s five-game winning streak in the T20 series, while Pakistan takes a first win of their tour in the final match.
England will play Australia in the first of three T20s on Friday. An international series of three one-day matches follows.
Not be this time for england
Had England been victorious, it would have been their second successful chase of over 190 in the series, after they beat Pakistan’s 195-4 in the second T20 on Sunday.
On another excellent hitting pitch, and short on target, Moeen and then Curran almost repeated the feat.
England was hit by early ground loss: Jonny Bairstow was thrown on the third ball by Shaheen Afridi’s yorker, Dawid Malan holed in the middle of deep ground, while Tom Banton dazzled until he was thrown into confusion that saw Captain Eoin Morgan run and himself was caught lbw an over later on 46.
Moeen, who had struggled to get in shape this summer, posted 56 with Sam Billings and after the Kent hitter skipped a third-man catch, he continued the round.
He broke 19 of Shadab Khan’s next few, including two six in a row and another big mid-wicket high, to turn the game in England’s favor.
Moeen looked like he was going to drag his side over the line, but instead Wahab made the decisive contribution. The 35-year-old southpaw brilliantly picked up the ball in his follow-up and ran out of Jordan, mixed up his pace to negate Moeen’s limits and found a goalie to take the top edge of the southpaw’s bat.
Then Curran was turned down by Rauf in the final, but then Morgan still noted the importance of his team gaining experience in pressure situations as they move towards the 2021 T20 World Cup.
A positive ending for Pakistan
For Pakistan, this was the last match of a long tour that began on June 29 when they arrived for a quarantine period in the UK and also included a 1-0 defeat in the test series.
They have competed well for the majority and they deserved the victory.
Hafeez followed the 69 in the second game with another impressive blow. The 39-year-old again took aim at the side of the leg, and consecutive hits to the stand in front of Rashid’s bowling alley were two of six sixes.
More important, however, could be the arrival of Haider. He reached the fold after just seven balls and trudged his second ball in international cricket for six on the Moeen spin.
The right-hander, highly valued after impressing in the last U-19 World Cup, kept attacking and showed a series of powerful but elegant shots.
He and Hafeez, separated by 20 years of age, shared a position of exactly 100 as England’s bowlers, while improving from their uneven performance on Sunday, battled for power.
Haider became the twelfth youngest player to score 50 in his T20 debut and the first Pakistani hitter to make half a century in his first T20 appearance.
‘Many positives for England’: what they said
England Captain Eoin Morgan: “I think there are a lot of positives. Two days ago it was a great victory for us. The biggest positive today was the remarkable improvement of our bowlers. They did a great job.
“With the bat, there are still positives. It is disappointing to lose, but you learn more about each player in pressure situations.”
Moeen Ali from England: “I tried to play like I did in my first England games; full of energy and I try to be busy in the area.
“I feel like I’ve been missing that lately and maybe for a long period of time, so it was good to go out and play well today.”
