ISLAMABAD: Pakistan defeated England in yet another close encounter on Wednesday, winning the clash by five runs to go 3-2 up in the seven-match T20 series at the Qaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
Set a target of 146 runs to win the fifth T20I, the English batters couldn’t withstand the Pakistani bowling attack and as a result, lost early wickets. Pakistan’s bowlers chipped in with the wickets, with pacer Haris Rauf finishing with figures of 2/41.
Debutant Aamer Jamal, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan and Mohammad Wasim all took a wicket each to restrict England to 139/7 at the end of 20 overs. The visitors were seven runs shy of their target.
Moeen Ali was the only English batter who put up some resistance against the Pakistani bowling lineup, scoring an unbeaten 51 off 37 balls. His innings included six 4s and two 6s.
Dawid Malan looked threatening as well with his 36 off 35 balls but Pakistan’s Ahmed trapped him lbw and sent him to the pavilion before he could do some more damage.
From Pakistan, Mohammad Rizwan once again top-scored from his side with his 46-ball 63. Rizwan found little help from Babar Azam or Shan Masood, who went for 9 and 7 respectively. Haider Ali, batting in at number 4, also went cheaply for 4 runs.
Mark Wood once again proved to be the pick of the English bowlers, finishing with figures of 3/20 while David Willey and Sam Curran ended up with figures of 2/23 and 2/23 respectively.
Earlier, England won the toss and put Pakistan to bat.
Pakistan brought the Karachi leg of the series to a close on Sunday when the hosts beat England in a thriller. Shan Masood’s under-arm throw from the last match prevented Reece Topley from reaching the crease and England from chasing the 167-run target.
England, who are on their first tour of Pakistan in 17 years, will play the sixth T20 fixture against Pakistan on Friday, September 30 before the final match of the series will take place on Sunday, October 2.
Squads:
Pakistan 1 Babar Azam (capt), 2 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 3 Shan Masood, 4 Iftikhar Ahmed, 5 Haider Ali, 6 Asif Ali, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Aamer Jamal, 10 Mohammad Wasim, 11 Haris Rauf
England 1 Phil Salt (wk), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Duckett, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Moeen Ali (capt), 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 David Willey, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood