Yardy powers England to victory in entertaining contest

An impressive English bowling restricting the visitors to 126/4 and then they followed it up by a sensible batting with a bit of hiccup to thump Pakistan by 5 wickets to win the first game of the 2-match T20I series.

After being put into bat under the overcast conditions, Pakistan started off well by blasting 12 runs in the first over but after that Kamran Akmal’s wicket fell in the very next over. Mohammad Yousuf and Shahzaib Hasan then stitched a partnership of 37 runs for the second wicket and added 49 runs in the Quick Start Overs for the loss of one wicket. Just when the duo started to look threatening, England’s premier spin bowler Graeme Swann send both of them back to the hut. He bowled a tremendous spell of spin bowling and spun the ball enough to keep the batsmen guessing, picking 2 wickets for 14 runs in his 4 overs, thereby earning a Bowling Efficiency of 171. Pakistani batsmen were finding it very difficult to time their strokes and managed to add just 42/1 in the Extreme Performance Over with the batsman of Afridi’s caliber at the crease. Umar Akmal was the top scorer for Pakistan, scoring 35 and finished with a Batting Momentum of 41.

Chasing 127 for a win, England like their opposition lost Kieswetter in the second over when the scoreboard read just 9 runs. Steve Davies and Ravi Bopara steadied the ship with a 33-run stand for the second wicket but the latter departed by playing an unnecessary shot. The Brits gathered 42 runs in the Quick Start Overs for the loss of couple of wickets. After that the wickets fell like nine pins as they lost three wickets within a span of 12 deliveries. Pakistan sniffed a chance for win but England’s new talisman in the middle order, Eoin Morgan, joined forces with Michael Yardy and shut down any hope for the visitors’ comeback with an unbeaten 67-run stand for the sixth wicket. Morgan, who played a key role in the victory top scored with 38 runs and earned a Batting Momentum of 60 while Shoaib Akhtar and Shahid Afridi grabbed two wickets each and finished with a Bowling Efficiency of 104 and 89 respectively.

England finished with a Castrol Index of 112 as compared to Pakistan’s 103 and the only time the visitors’ were ahead was in the Quick Start Overs but not by a big margin. Michael Yardy bagged the Man of the Match award for his rollicking all-round performance, earning an Overall Castrol Index of 203 but the top performer of the day was Graeme Swann, who got an overall Castrol Index of 253 while Shoaib Akhtar with 175 was the best player for Pakistan. Pakistan have to pick themselves up and try and level the series on Tuesday. England, meanwhile will be looking to finish the 2-match encounter on a high with a 2-0 whitewash ahead of the 5-match ODI series. The game on Tuesday is at the same venue and starts at 1700 GMT.