Moeen Ali’s late blitz not enough for England as Eoin Morgan’s side suffer rare T20 defeat against Pakistan
EOIN MORGAN’S golden touch deserted him for once when he was run out and his team suffered a rare defeat.
England’s loss by five runs at Old Trafford levelled the Twenty20 series 1-1 and gave Pakistan the first win of their tour.
Even a late assault by Moeen Ali - who made 61 from 33 balls - was not enough to get England over the line.
Moeen has looked alarmingly out of touch in England’s white ball matches so far this summer but he played several of his trademark languid strokes until he was caught and bowled by Wahab Riaz from a mis-hit pull shot.
It set up an exciting finish but Pakistan prevailed. A big turning point was the run out of in-form captain Morgan for ten.
He struck the previous ball for six over mid-wicket and then called partner Tom Banton for a single. But, with Banton staying put and Babar Azam making a brilliant diving stop in the covers, Morgan found himself stranded at the wrong end.
When Banton - the player who has advanced his cause most in this series in the absence of big names such as Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer - was lbw on review for 46, England were tottering at 69-4.
But Moeen, in partnership with Sam Billings and Lewis Gregory, gave England a sniff of victory until Pakistan’s quickies sent down some brilliant deliveries near the end.
There was one late twist when, with England needing 12 runs from two balls, Tom Curran lofted a six over cover. But Haris Rauf finished with a wide yorker and there was nothing Curran could do about it.
The bulk of Pakistan’s runs in their total of 190-4 were scored by two batsmen aged 19 and 39.
The young Haider Ali, playing his first international match, struck his second ball for six off Moeen and went on to score 54 from 33 balls.
Veteran Mohammad Hafeez performed even better with 86 not out from 52 deliveries and continued his prolific recent form. He was named Man of the Series.
Haider and Hafeez added 100 for the third wicket in ten overs and made sure England faced a stiff target.
For the second match running, Pakistan went close to 200 and treated England’s bowling with violence and disdain. Even Adil Rashid conceded 40 runs in his three overs.
Two of Pakistan’s players have signed to play in the T20 Blast - left-arm speedster Shaheen Afridi will turn out for Hampshire while all-rounder Imad Wasim is to play for Notts.
England plan fielding their first-choice XI, including the players who have been locked in the Test bubble for the past ten weeks, against the Aussies, starting at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on Friday.
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Morgan said: “This was an improvement on Sunday’s game in the bowling department but I feel sorry for the bowlers in this series as we’ve been in lockdown and we’re all rusty. Come the Australia series, they will continue to get better.
“We were disappointing with the bat. We had to regroup when Banton was dismissed through Moeen and Billings. But these are the games we want in order to get better.
“Banton has continued to show promise and Moeen is a joy to watch, very elegant and experienced.”