England beat Pakistan by 45 runs in second T20 to level series – as it happened | Sport

And here’s Babar Azam. He feels Pakistan let England get 20-30 too many, with the fast bowlers not at their best, and then they didn’t get enough momentum with the bat. Asked if he regrets his decision to chase, he says “No. We have been chasing well, but after the first six overs, we were not continuing our partnerships.” But he’s looking forward to the final match.

Aren’t we all, Babar? This has been a cracking series, and not content with amazing us by dishing up a lethal English spin trident, it is about to deliver something cricket has been missing all summer: a decider. That’s on Tuesday, 6.30pm, at Old Trafford, where the leggies will be licking their lips again.

I was wrong, by the way, about Player of the Match, which has gone to Moeen Ali, for making that gorgeous 36 as well as taking two wickets. Buttler was robbed, but he’s probably got enough awards on his mantelpiece. Thanks for your company, and the match report will be along soon.

Here’s Jos Buttler, with a broad smile on his face. “Really enjoyed it… Two very different leg-spinners, I thought they bowled really well in tandem. Parky especially bowled really well today after a tough-ish game at Trent Bridge for all the bowlers.”

The old lags in the commentary box are big Buttler fans. “I think he’s got an amazing ability,” Michael Vaughan says, “to read the game and be calm around the group.”

“It’s the smart way he does it,” adds Jimmy Anderson, not quite an old lag but you know what I mean. ”He played a couple of amazing shots but mainly he kept it on the ground, he knew the team needed him to stay in for a length of time.”

Amid all that spin, Saqib Mahmood also picked up three more wickets to add to his fine collection. “Three lads with Pakistani heritage,” says my colleague Ali Martin on Twitter, “bowling England to a win over Pakistan at Headingley. Superb.”

There’s going to be one question when the interviews take place. “Babar, well played, bad luck, but why did you decide to field first?” Headingley is usually a bat-first ground in T20 cricket. England read the pitch right and cleaned up as it got drier and drier in the sun. A Sunday roast.

So here are those astonishing figures. Adil Rashid, opening the bowling with his googlies, 2 for 30 off four overs. Moeen Ali, recovering well from a poor first over with his off-spin, 2 for 32 off three. Matt Parkinson, bowling super-slow leg-breaks and turning the ball sharply, 1 for 25 off his four. And it’s quite likely that none of them will be the Player of the Match, as all of this was a triumph for Jos Buttler, who also stroked the day’s only fifty.

20th over: Pakistan 155-9 (Shadab Khan 36, Haris Rauf 0) And that’s it. Curran bowls a tidy last over, under no pressure at all, so England win by 45 runs. They’ve been superb, and the spin triplets have been a revelation.

19th over: Pakistan 154-9 (Shadab Khan 35, Mohammad Hasnain 0) Tasked with hitting nine sixes in a row, while somehow nicking the strike after three of them, Shadab at least managed one.

Yorked! The most interesting thing about this dismissal is that as Mahmood releases the ball, a black disc flips from underneath his feet. The crowd break into Sweet Caroline, which is fast becoming the signature tune of the whole of English sport.

Another flail, another catch, and now all Pakistan need is to hit the last nine balls for six.

18th over: Pakistan 145-7 (Shadab Khan 27, Shaheen Shah Afridi 2) Good to see some joy for Curran, who nearly blew this game for England when he ran out Liam Livingstone. There’s a pause for what seems to be a pitch invasion, possibly by a streaker – the BBC director doesn’t give them the oxygen of publicity. Pakistan need 56 off the last two overs, so they could hit every ball for four and still lose the match.

Tom Curran returns and digs his slower ball into this dry pitch, which is enough to turn Imad’s flailing pull into an easy catch to Roy at deep mid-on.

17th over: Pakistan 142-6 (Imad Wasim 20, Shadab Khan 26) At last Buttler relents and gives the Pakistanis something with a bit of pace on it. It’s Saqib Mahmood, mixing it up and managing a couple of dots among the ones and twos, but then going for six as Shadab gives him a good slap. This partnership is 37 off three overs, which is excellent in normal circumstances – but it leaves Pakistan needing 59 off the last three.

16th over: Pakistan 132-6 (Imad Wasim 17, Shadab Khan 18) It’s Rashid to bring us the 11th over of spin in this innings, the most England have ever bowled in a T20 game. Livingstone, the one spinner who hasn’t had a go yet, makes a fabulous flying stop at deep midwicket, drawing warm applause, but it doesn’t count as he planted a foot outside the rope – the first time he’s put a foot wrong this week.

15th over: Pakistan 120-6 (Imad Wasim 15, Shadab Khan 9) Moeen continues, but his luck runs out as Imad keeps on heaving him to cow corner and Shadab whips him for six. The required rate stays at 16, which is twice what they’ve managed so far.

14th over: Pakistan 105-6 (Imad Wasim 9, Shadab Khan 0) Imad had decided it was do-or-die, and belted Parkinson back over his head for six. Azam took the same view, with less success.

Azam survives a review for LBW but then dances, misses and can’t even begin to get back. And England’s spin triplets have five wickets between them.

13th over: Pakistan 96-5 (Azam Khan 1, Imad Wasim 1) Moeen’s first over was a dud, but his second has been a triumph: three runs, two wickets, one big smile on his face. Pakistan need another 105, at a daunting 15 runs per over.

Another one! Moeen sees Fakhar coming down the track, gets some drift into him and then turns it past the outside edge, smack into the off bail. Lovely stuff.

Moeen returns and his first ball is chipped straight to Bairstow, who doesn’t have to go anywhere this time. England’s surprise ploy, packing the side with spinners, is paying off handsomely.

12th over: Pakistan 93-3 (Mohammad Hafeez 10, Fakhar Zaman 7) Parkinson nearly adds another scalp to the leggies’ collection as Hafeez top-edges into the deep, but Jonny Bairstow can’t quite get there springing in from the rope. The last five overs have brought two wickets and 28 runs, and may well have won the match.

11th over: Pakistan 86-3 (Mohammad Hafeez 6, Fakhar Zaman 4) Fakhar Zaman is off the mark, but only with a nick for four that could easily have been out if the slip fielder had been Ben Stokes rather than Dawid Malan. Poor old Pakistan, they just don’t know what to do in the face of this English spin attack.

What. A. Catch. Rashid bowls a full toss, gets it back with interest from Rizwan, and somehow grabs it with his outstretched left hand. That’s the moment of the day so far.

10th over: Pakistan 80-2 (Mohammad Rizwan 36, Mohammad Hafeez 5) I can’t remember ever seeing this before: two leg-spinners bowling for England at the same time. And they’re so different – Rashid all about the googlies, Parkinson sticking to the leg-break and getting big turn. He beats the bat twice in this over. It’s like Warne and MacGill all over again, but for England!

9th over: Pakistan 76-2 (Mohammad Rizwan 35, Mohammad Hafeez 2) In comes Mohammad Hafeez, the oldest smiter in town, but Rashid is in the mood now and he concedes only six off his second over. That wicket means that England have their noses in front. Probably.

Rashid returns and strikes immediately! He drifts the ball past Maqsood’s outside edge and Buttler pulls off a stumping so smooth, it could be by John Simpson.

8th over: Pakistan 71-1 (Mohammad Rizwan 32, Sohaib Maqsood 15) It’s spin from both ends as Matt Parkinson replaces Mahmood. He’s the slowest of the four slow bowlers England have picked today. Maqsood tries to tuck in straightaway but his big mow just bnrings a single to Chris Jordan at long-on. Only six off the over.

7th over: Pakistan 65-1 (Mohammad Rizwan 28, Sohaib Maqsood 13) With the PowerPlay over, Buttler turns to Moeen Ali, which is not something Eoin Morgan has been inclined to do lately. Maqsood belts him for six and then nicks for four as Buttler continues to spurn that slip. Rizwan chips in with a late cut so very late that it could be one of Boris Johnson’s decisions. Fifteen off the over: maybe Morgan had a point.

6th over: Pakistan 50-1 (Mohammad Rizwan 26, Sohaib Maqsood 1) Before the wicket, Babar lofted Mahmood over midwicket for four, one bounce over the rope, to bring up the fifty partnership. But then came the breakthrough, and Mahmood, who’s made his name in the past fortnight, might have a second wicket in the over if only Buttler had posted a slip, as Sohaib starts with a right old waft.

The big one! Mahmood bags his bunny for the third time as Babar mistimes a pull for once and gets a leading edge to mid-off, where Dawid Malan dives forward to take a fine catch.

5th over: Pakistan 43-0 (Mohammad Rizwan 26, Babar Azam 16) Tom Curran becomes the first person to bowl a two-over spell in this innings. He tries a bit of everything including a slower-ball bouncer, which Rizwan flicks for four by turning his bat into a periscope. He’s a genius in T20 cricket.

“Captain, opener and keeper is a heavy load for one (admittedly brilliant) man,” says David Ferguson on Twitter. “Couldn’t YJB have taken one or two of those roles off Jos’s shoulders?” Well, maybe not the captaincy, but yes it was puzzling to see Bairstow hand over the gloves.

4th over: Pakistan 35-0 (Mohammad Rizwan 20, Babar Azam 14) The Jordan experiment is over as Jos Buttler recognises that the man to bowl at Babar is Mahmood. He manages to calm things down for a minute – dot, dot – but then Babar unfurls another imperious four, on-driven on the up. Only six off the over: a minor triumph for Mahmood.

3rd over: Pakistan 29-0 (Mohammad Rizwan 19, Babar Azam 9) Rashid comes off straight away, to be replaced by Tom Curran. Babar Azam, delighted not to see his nemesis Saqib Mahmood, plays an imperious pull for four and then wiggles his wrists to make a leg glance go for two. Curran does manage to induce a false shot from Babar, a leading edge, but it just lollops into no-man’s-land. England badly need wickets, already.

2nd over: Pakistan 19-0 (Mohammad Rizwan 17, Babar Azam 1) Well, this is a surprise: the other new-ball bowler is Chris Jordan, whose skills are mostly reserved for the other end of the innings. And it doesn’t go well, as he gets flicked for six by Rizwan, who then squirts one past the keeper for four. Rizwan’s average in this format in 2021 is over a hundred. Ridiculous but true.

1st over: Pakistan 7-0 (Mohammad Rizwan 6, Babar Azam 1) It’s Adil Rashid, the senior of England’s two and a half leg-spinners, though he mostly bowls googlies these days. He manages two dots to Rizwan, who then decides that’s enough of that and goes big with a four over long-on. Babar, not to be rushed, waits for the ball and clips for a single. From his general demeanour, you would assume he was an English gent in 1934, spending his summer holidays playing for Sussex.

England started and finished badly, but in between they were sublime. Jos Buttler, back from another enforced absence, made a silky 59. Moeen Ali joined him with an innings of 36 spun out of something even finer than silk, and then Liam Livingstone came along and blasted his way to 38 like a coal-miner at a cocktail party. Pakistan have the momentum from the last few overs, but England have 200 on the board, so Babar Azam may not be able to afford the measured start he prefers. A lot will hinge on England’s battery of slow bowlers. See you in a few minutes.

20th over: England 200 all out (Mahmood 3) Matt Parkinson manages one fine shot, a waft over backward point for four, and then Shaheen finds a yorker to finish things off.

19th over: England 193-9 (Mahmood 1, Parkinson 1) Haris Rauf is on a hat-trick after those two wickets, but Matt Parkinson is equal to the challenge, pushing into the covers for a single. Still, Pakistan have bounced back strongly here.

Two in two! Adil Rashid, usually such a handy batter, opts to stand right outside off and therefore gets bowled, middle stump.

Another full toss, and this time Jordan picks out the man at deep midwicket. He did well enough, but England are paying a price for their long tail.

18th over: England 190-7 (Jordan 14, Rashid 1) Before the wicket, Curran had just managed to find the boundary, whipping Hasnain away to deep square. After it, Chris Jordan keeps the runs flowing with a glide for two and a wallop for four, followed by a couple of singles. Hasnain finishes with 3 for 51 off his four overs. Seven fours, one six, and only four dots: the kid is a crowd-pleaser.

A lofted slice to deep cover, and Hasnain has yet another wicket.

17th over: England 178-6 (T Curran 5, Jordan 7) Back comes Shaheen Shah Afridi: not the sight you want to see when you’re a tail-ender, but at least he hasn’t got any left-handers to torment. Curran, itching to atone for his blunder, manages a few shovels into the leg side and sharpens up his running. Then Jordan, spotting a full toss, helps it round the corner for six. Game on again.

16th over: England 165-6 (T Curran 1, Jordan 0) That over had begun so well. It was all down to Livingstone and he was fine with that, smiting a six and a four off Haris Rauf. Then he tried a ramp which went sideways, leading Curran to call for the run that proved fatal. And now the bowlers have to fiddle their way to 200.