England defeat Pakistan through a super-over eliminator to win the series 3-0
England defeated Pakistan in a nail-biting match, the result of which was decided by a One-over eliminator. This was the third and final T20 match of the series, and England having won the previous two, clean swept Pakistan 3-0.
England won the toss and decided to bat first, but they were made to rue their decision on the first ball of the innings when Aamer Yamin caught Jason Roy leg before on the first ball of the innings.
Jame Vince and Joe Root steadied the innings as they added 48 runs for the second wicket. But Root and then Moeen Ali lost their wickets on consecutive Shahid Afridi deliveries to again give Pakistan the upper hand.
It needed a late Chris Woakes cameo of 37 runs in 24 balls which included three sixes to take England to a respectable total of 154 in 20 overs. Vince was the highest scorer of the team with 46 runs. Both Shahid Afridi and Sohail Tanvir bagged two wickets apiece.
Pakistan’s start to the innings was not good as well. Ahmed Shehzad’s stumps were uprooted by David Willey on the fifth ball of the innings. On the next ball, in a comedy of errors, both the Pakistani batsmen, Rafatullah Mohmand and Mohammad Hafeez ran towards the same end(again!), only for the third umpire to rule the latter out.
Rafatullah followed soon after as Willey caught him leg before in the third over as Pak lost three of their batsmen with only 11 runs on the board.
Shoaib Malik was the star in the Pak batting line up as his knock of 75 runs took Pakistan very close to the target, but his wicket fell on the penultimate ball of the innings with his team still needing a couple of runs to win.
However, Tanvir was not able to put the bat on ball but the batsmen took a run to take the match in the super over. Shahid Afridi scored 29 runs in the latter stages of the innings, which included 3 sixes. Willey bagged three wickets for the English team.
Pakistan batted first in the one-over eliminator, but Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi managed only three runs of the six deliveries bowled by Chris Jordan.
Afridi was given the responsibility to bowl the one over for Pak, but Morgan and Buttler made no fuss of it and achieved the required target in 5 balls.
Brief score:
England 154/8 (20/20 overs)
Pakistan 154/7 (20/20 overs)
Match tied (England won the one-over eliminator)