Pakistan vs England cricket series initiated from the beginning of August, after the England and Whales Cricket Board gave green signals for hosting the tournaments. The decision was taken considering all necessary precautions and assessments to ensure protection from the crucial pandemic. Old Trafford in Manchester and The Rose Bowl, Southampton was mooted to be the safest venues for Pakistan vs England test and T20I series.
The semi-finals and final matches of Pakistan Super League [PSL], hosted by Pakistan were postponed at the end of February, as Coronavirus rapidly rolled-out in the country. The hard-hitting news left Pakistani cricket fans extremely downhearted. However, in the month of June, PCB cheered the die-hard cricket fans with a massive surprise, announcing the Pakistan vs England Test and T20I series. Hence, Pakistani cricket team, after getting repeatedly assessed for the lethal coronavirus, finally set out on their journey to England.
Pakistan vs England series [test]
After playing two intra warm-up matches at Country Ground, Derby, Men in green played their first Test match against England on 5th August 2020. The match was hosted at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester. After head-to-head battle between the two teams, first test concluded with team England unvanquished by green shirts and winning by 3 wickets.
Furthermore, team Pakistan came-in much promising in next two test matches, pulling out amazing strategies and giving hard time to England players. The next two tests resulted in dead heat between Pakistan and England, due to weather conditions.
Therefore, the three-match Pakistan vs England test series concluded with team England unvanquished by green shirts.
At the end of test series, Stuart Broad and James Anderson proved why they are class apart with 11 and 13 wickets respectively. Additionally, the iconic Anderson crossed nearly 600 test wickets, while Brood took his career tally to 514 wickets.
Here to mention, Muhammad Rizwan from team green was titled player of the series as he smashed a total of 161 runs at 40.25, whereas from team England, Jos Buttler won the title.
T20I series
After giving back to back performances on the Southampton fields, Pakistani players once again enrooted to Old Trafford on August 28th, Friday to play first match of Pakistan vs England T20I series. However, after playing spoilsport in last two test matches, the rain crashed the party during the first T20I too. The match was eventually washed out with only 16.1 overs possible.
Yesterday, on 30th August 2020, England won the toss and elected to bowl first.
ENGLAND SQUAD
- Tom Banton,
- Jonny Bairstow(w),
- David Malan,
- Eoin Morgan (c),
- Sam Billings,
- Moeen Ali,
- Lewis Gregory,
- Tom Curran,
- Chris Jordan,
- Adil Rashid,
- Saqib Mahmood.
PAKISTAN SQUAD
- Babar Azam (c),
- Fakhar Zaman,
- Mohammad Hafeez,
- Shoaib Malik,
- Mohammad Rizwan(w),
- Iftikhar Ahmed,
- Shadab Khan,
- Imad Wasim,
- Mohammad Amir,
- Haris Rauf,
- Shaheen Afridi.
2nd T20I summary, England won by 5 wickets.
Pakistan had put up 195/4 in 20 overs, building on exclusive partnership between Babar Azam and Mohammad Hafeez. Babar scored 56 whereas Hafeez stroked 69 runs. To their reply, England came out firing on all cylinders. Eoin Morgan and David Malan, who hit the winning runs of 66 and 54 respectively, put on a 100 plus partnership taking the hosts to a relatively comfortable win.
Shadab Khan and Muhammad Hafeez strikes again
Nevertheless, green shirts lost the match yesterday, there were some players who skyrocketed their career with their remarkable performances.
Shadab khan, the veteran bowler and a rising all-rounder gave a top-notch performance in whole Pakistan vs England series, yesterday to be precise. Last night, Shadab ignited hope for Pakistani fans as he took the wicket of Bairstow. Not stopping here, he got a top edge as he went to sweep; hence Imad Wasim took an easy catch. Pakistan finally got a window into the game by that wicket.
Tom Banton was LBW of the next ball, henceforth Shadab was on a swift hat trick.
Read More: Anti-Islam protest in Norway breaks out clashes between rival groups
Second player who smashed some previous records of Pakistani players in last night’s match was indeed our gifted batsman Muhammad Hafeez. Though the dismissal of Azam and Malik caused a bit of decline in Pakistan’s run rate, but Mohammed Hafeez’s audacious stroke play ensured that they eventually posted 4-195 in 20 overs. Hafeez played a quick-fire knock of 69 run off 36 balls, studded with four sixes and five fours. Here to mention, with his remarkable performance yesterday, Muhammad Hafeez is now the second Pakistani batsman after Shoaib Malik to score 2000+ scores in T20Is.
But as it turned out, even his exploits could not prevent the home side from overhauling the second highest run chase in Pakistan vs England T20I series.
The third test is scheduled for 1st September, tomorrow at Old Trafford, Manchester.
Read More: Abu Dhabi restaurant explosion kills two
