DUBAI: Jonny Bairstow and Steven Finn inspired England to a 38-run victory over Pakistan in Dubai on Saturday to level the three-match series of Twenty20 internationals at 1-1.
England chose to bat first under lights and chalked up 150 for seven with the 22-year-old Bairstow clubbing an unbeaten 60 in 46 balls.
Man of the match Bairstow, son of the late former England wicketkeeper David, belted five fours and two sixes. Opener Craig Kieswetter also chipped in with 31 off 24 deliveries while Pakistan seamer Umar Gul took two for 31 and spinner Saeed Ajmal produced an economical spell of one for 20 in four overs.
Pakistan started their run chase badly, slumping to two for two after losing Mohammad Hafeez for a duck and Asad Shafiq for one.
Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and Shahid Afridi top-scored with 25 in 23 balls as Pakistan were bowled out for 112 in 18.2 overs.
England captain Stuart Broad and spinner Graeme Swann took two wickets apiece but improving young paceman Finn stole the show by returning figures of three for 30 and running out Ajmal for a duck with a direct hit from close range.
The third and final match will be in Abu Dhabi on Monday.
Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Awais Zia, Asad Shafiq, Umar Akmal (wk), Misbahul Haq (capt), Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Hammad Azam, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Aizaz Cheema
England: Kevin Pietersen, Craig Kieswetter (wk), Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Jonathan Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Samit Patel, Stuart Broad (capt), Graeme Swann, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn
Umpires: Ahsan Raza (Pakistan) and Zameer Haider (Pakistan)
TV umpire: Shozab Raza (Pakistan)
Match referee: JJ Crowe (New Zealand)
COMMENTS (13)
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Awais Zia on wild goose chase; huge disappointment. Boy can't even sight the ball properly. Is he another safarashi?
Least talented team from Pakistan !
Assalam-o-Allaikum Warahmatullah.Victory and defeat are the parts of life and of the same coin.We don't have to be disappointed by the defeats in any fields of life but we must have to see the weaknesses and demerits we have done and to remove them by hard work and struggle instead of disappointments.
150 was not a big target, but as usual our batsmen made a fool of themselves by making it look that way. The top order we have is a joke and the middle order is full of over rated gully players (e.g umar akmal). The national cricket academy is doing a poor job at the moment, maybe I should send them my CV?.
Misbah atleasr made us get to 18th over...match would have finished a long ago.....
Lala gave his best effort as I could see in his own way i.e...
afridi should be rested - have been pretty helpless this tour!
Misbah should bat higher in the order. Hammad Azam is an excellent player and should be kept in the future squads. Drop Shoaib Malik, he is a useless cricketer.
Our guys tried. It was not our day, especially for the batsmen.
Why ET forget to mention the Misbah who wasted precious balls and help England to win?
Pakistan should have kept Test series winners. Those who cannot play Test are not real cricketers. Keep these club level cricketers for B teams.