England cruise to comfortable victory

England completed a comfortable victory over Pakistan in the first of two T20Is at Dubai on Friday.

England beat Pakistan by seven wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the 2-T20I series at Dubai. The second match will be played at the same venue tomorrow.

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first, on what looked like a slow wicket. They got off to a sluggish start and were reduced to 25 for two at the end of the Quick start period with both their openers back in the pavilion. Khalid Latif and Umar Akmal failed to make an impact, going in quick succession before the halfway mark. Shoaib Malik and Fawad Alam pulled things back for Pakistan with a 47 run stand for the fifth wicket before Graeme Swann picked up Malik. Abdul Razzaq struck a few lusty blows in the Extreme Performance period which pushed Pakistan’s total to 129/8 at the end of their 20 overs. Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan and Stuart Broad picked up two wickets each for England, who maintained a Bowling Efficiency of 246.

England started much like Pakistan in their run chase. They were reduced to just 25 for three at the end of the Power Play, which brought Pakistan right back into the game as reflected in the Castrol Index. But Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen had other ideas about which way this match went. The duo batted with great composure through the middle of the innings and ensured that they did not throw away their wickets after getting their eye in. The two went on to share a 112 run partnership for the fourth wicket, which came off just 85  balls. Morgan finished unbeaten on 67 while Pietersen managed a run-a-ball 43. They got England home in the 19th over, thanks to some heavy hitting off Morgan’s bat towards the end.

Eoin Morgan was adjudged Man of the Match for his unbeaten 67 off 51 balls in the English run chase. He manged to achieve a Batting Momentum of 88 in his innings.