England vs Pakistan - final T20

so here we are again, last game of the tour and the deciding T20 match between England and Pakistan. Broad has won the toss again and decided that England will bat, team news to follow shortly. How do you see this one panning out?

Team news: both teams unchanged.

England team:
KP Pietersen, C Kieswetter†, RS Bopara, EJG Morgan, JM Bairstow, JC Buttler, SR Patel, GP Swann, SCJ Broad*, JW Dernbach, ST Finn

Pakistan team:
Mohammad Hafeez, Awais Zia, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal†, Shoaib Malik, Misbah-ul-Haq*, Shahid Afridi, Hammad Azam, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema

The Pakistan team just feels wrong for this format. They do have real match winners and a lot of spin options ( garunteed wickets against England!) but it just seems a bit of an odd mish mash to me. Not sure about the morale either, the test team seem very tight and professional but the limited overs ones more like the old Pakistan.

I expect and England win, but really its such a lottery in T20.

I think if we get over 140 we'll win, under that and it will be close. Nice 4 from KP in the first over, I still can't work out why Hafeez is so economical, doesn't seem particularly special but everyone struggles to score against him.

Kieswetter not quite found his timing yet, looks a pretty dodgy pitch for batting on actually, a couple of balls keeping low already.

He has now! 2/4/6 off the first 3 balls of Gul's first over.

Cheema bowling well, like I said looks like a pretty hard pitch to bat on. England 28/0 after four overs.

Kieswetter gone, goes for the big hit of Ajmal and picks out long-on. England 29-1

Good catch to get rid of CK on the boundary, thought he'd got enough of it to go for 6 but it wasn't to be.

Bopara doesn't last long, nicks one and Akmal takes a decent catch moving to his right. Cheema with a well-deserved wicket.

Loved how happy Akmal was that he actually caught one!

Morgan chips one straight up, but it doesn't carry to long-off (Shoiaib Malik is probably not the quickest moving fielder). Shows how hard it is to time it properly on this.

Be very tough to get to 140 from here, 56 off 9 so far. Looking at 120-130 really which might be enough on this surface, Morgan looks awful so far.

oh dear, mix up and Morgan is run out, England didn't need that.

Completely Pietersen's fault but I'm a lot less bothered than I would normally be with Morgan's current form!

Mogs getting out might do us a favour here tbh

KP survies a huge appeal for LBW, enough doubt over whether that struck him in line with leg-stump or not IMO for the umpire to turn it down.

KP with a bottom-edged four and then a lovely chipped two over the infield. England need a big last eight overs here.

dreadful shot from Bairstow, England in trouble.

England going nowhere, just 29 from the last seven overs, oh dear!

crikey, that one moved a mile, must have hit a crack. Gul straying and gifts England 6 wides

This is a very tricky pitch it seems, perfect for Pakistan's bowling.

lazy running from Buttler, England should have pinched an overthrow there.

Why do people now slate Morgan. He was our only good ODI batsman last year and has carried the line up many times. Everyone goes through bad form at some point

England need something special from the last 4 overs here, time for KP to step up.

Our middle order has looked totally inept on this pitch. Bopara, Morgan, Bairstow and Buttler all out for single figures. Feel sorry for KP as he is now england's chance to win this mattch. It's all down to him.

ollyrules wrote:Why do people now slate Morgan. He was our only good ODI batsman last year and has carried the line up many times. Everyone goes through bad form at some point

Haven't seen anyone slate him but as you say he's out of form and as such it was almost better for England to have someone in better form (Bairstow) at the middle instead. In the end they both failed along with Buttler but this is a very tough pitch to bat on, especially against Ajmal.

Patel goes 2,6,4 off Ajmal (the last a very fortunate little nick).

but then gets out. Not sure he needed to carry on playing the big shots, England probably guilty of playing out too many dot balls here.

Too many failed attempts at big shots, not enough pushes into the gaps for 2.

woops, Cheema finishes the innings with a lousy full toss and KP swats it into the crowd at mid-wicket. Lovely innings from KP, takes England to 129, which IMO looks just about defendable on this...

would have taken 130 at the halfway, so thats not a terrible effort in the end. KP carried us, and handled the pressure marvelously. If we bowl as we have throughout the ODI's and T20's then i'd say we've got a competitive score to defend.

this is pretty dreadful from England and Broad, you need to get those fielders in to stop Pakistan just playing tip and run.

Swann strikes, game on!

plenty of turn for Swann out there, though it looks like he got a bit lucky with that LBW, ball pitched fractionally outside leg looking at the replays.

very interesting that England have their best fielder (Morgan) at short fine-leg for Shafiq against Patel. Two of the balls in that over go to him, good work.

get in- this is gonna be tight

74-2

really sensible partnership between Misbah and Shafiq ends with a somewhat daft run out. Pakistan on top, England are going to need something a bit special here.

i dunno mad forchelsea - they will have to push to increase the rate- they are not scoring boundaries- i think this is 50-50

ermm spoke abit to soon- they look in control

oh dear, run out is on but Broad is too far from the stumps. Good over though from the captain, run rate creeps up to 8...

or maybe it was just patel causing me doubt

great over from broad- pressure abit more on the pakistain batters.

finn up- what can he do- no extras please

Pakistan target Finn and get nine runs courtesy of a lucky four for Akmal. 23 off three overs, Dernbach and Broad will finish it off.

so a good over from Dernbach, despite one wide conceding just 6, Pakistan need 17 off two.

damn you akmal

broad

Broad with two super dots, out-thinking Akmal. AND HE'S GONE! Big shot, skies it straight to long-off, 17 off 9 balls.

bairstow

oh Bairstow such a good fielder but made a right hash of that, 13 from 7