England T20 loss will provide lessons for World Cup
Pakistan’s three-run victory in Karachi last night may not have been the result England wanted but it will stand them in good stead for the World Cup next month.
England were out of it, then in it, then just five runs away from winning it but a last-over run-out handed Pakistan the victory and levelled the series after four matches at 2-2.
Both sides made errors throughout and both threw away strong positions at different points but the match will be of huge importance come the showpiece World Cup in Australia.
Pakistan in the final over needed the highest quality death bowling, while England’s last two remaining batters – Adil Rashid and Reece Topley – had to find victory from the final few balls.
Come the World Cup in October, where England’s first fixture is against Pakistan, both sides may look back to this moment as a lesson in closing out a match.
But with the Karachi leg of this series completed and three more matches to come in Lahore, this seven-match series is finely poised.
Pakistan would have wondered how they didn’t post a higher target than the 167 they set England.
Their openers, Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, hit 88 and 36 respectively before England really kicked into life – though no England bowler had an economy rate of below six.
It looked like a reachable target for Matthew Mott’s England, who are currently under the captaincy of Moeen Ali.
But they started poorly. Phil Salt was caught for eight, Alex Hales for five. Thereafter Will Jacks became the latest England player this year to be out for a duck.
England looked onto something, though, when Ben Duckett and Harry Brook hit 33 and 34 respectively and the tourists again looked to be closing in on victory when Liam Dawson smashed Mohammad Hasnain for 24 off the 18th over.
But a lapse in concentration, when England were on the cusp, led to a mini collapse and, ultimately, a loss in the fourth match of the seven-match tour.
“Amazing game of cricket. Obviously it went both ways, kept swinging and it was just amazing. I thought the crowd were electric throughout the four games here,” Moeen Ali said after the match.
“I felt like we should have chased that down. We’re disappointed we didn’t but we did lose a lot of wickets up top, kept hanging in there and Harry Brook played really well again.”
England will learn lessons from this; not only will they look at their rather ineffective bowling on the pitches of Pakistan but also at their decision making and timing – it was slightly off here.
It may be a cliche to say that cricket was the winner last night in Karachi but given the time the Pakistani fans have had to wait to see England again, and judging by the noise out of the National Stadium, this series – now past its midpoint – looks to have been a brilliant idea.
And as for the eventual series winners? It could go either way but neither side will care too much if lessons learned this and last week lead to a successful World Cup run.