September 8, 2010

second Twenty20: England vs Pakistan

Yesterday, Pakistan and England played their second Twenty20 cricket match of the series at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff - Wales. Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first.

Pakistan started well with the openers Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan. Kamran Akmal departed scoring 11 runs by giving a easy catch to Graeme Swann in Tim Bresnan delivery. After the fall of the first wicket, Pakistan started to loose wickets in regular intervals. Their run rate was decreasing as the overs went on and no player from Pakistan played magnificently as a result Pakistan ended up adding only few runs to the scoreboard. By 18.4 overs, Pakistan lost all its 10 wickets and made a total of 89 runs. Tim Bresnan took 3 wickets and his economy rate was just 2.72 runs per over. Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom each took 2 wickets.

England needed 90 runs in 20 overs to win the match and win the series by 2-0. They had 10 wickets on hand. Craig Kieswetter and Steve Davies opened the innings for England. England gave a moderate start as they could not start hitting because of Shoaib Akthar who was bowling brilliantly with line and length. England started to hit the ball in the second over when Umar Gul bowled a No ball which was resulted in a free hit. Craig Kieswetter used this opportunity and hit the ball over the fence which went all the way to six. Later in the same over, they hit 2 fours and a 3 run. This gave some confidence to the England team. But Shoaib akthar bowled well in his second over and to Steve Davies wicket, later in the next delivery Craig Kieswetter got run out. This was an double blow for England. Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara added contributed some runs to the team. When the 11th over ended , England had lost 4 wickets and scored 63 runs in total. By 14 overs, England scored 90 runs with the loss of 4 wickets and won the match by 6 wickets.


Man of the match went to Tim Bresnan for his magnificent bowling innings of the match. England won the series by 2-0. England has created a new record for winning the most number of matches consecutively. Next will the ODI series played  between England and Pakistan.

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