England beat Pakistan, draw level 1-1

Gulf Today Report

Bowlers put up a stellar show after Jos Buttler’s 59 as England defeated Pakistan by 45 runs in the second Twenty20 match to level the series 1-1 on Sunday.

After posting a huge total of 200, England restricted  Pakistan to a meagre 155/9 in their allotted 20 overs.

The trio of Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Saqib Mahmood did the trick for England as the hosts kept the three-match series alive with a facile win.

Chasing 201, Pakistan got off to a decent start as the openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam shared a half-century partnership for first wicket.

Mahmood got rid of Babar (22) to give England first breakthrough. Pakistan could never recover from there on and kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals.

Sohaib Maqsood reignited the hopes with a couple of blows but fell prey to wily spinner Adil Rashid.

He was  stumped in the ninth over as Pakistan lost their second wicket. Rizwan (37) waged the war single-handedly for a brief time but he also was dismissed by Rashid in the same fashion.

Moeen Ali struck in quick succession to send Mohammad Hafeez (10) and Fakhar Zaman (8) back to the pavilion in the same over, leaving Pakistan in tatters.

With 96 runs on the board and five wickets down in 13 overs, the visitors needed someone to pull them out of the rot.

Tom Curran conceded just one run in the last over to all but end Pakistan's challenge. Ali was named the Player of the Match for his 2/32.

Earlier, Pakistan had dismissed two England batsmen within just three overs. Buttler combined with Moeen Ali revived the innings with a gritty half –century.