LAHORE: David Malan and Harry Brook plundered 108 runs of the last 10.1 overs to enable England post a mammoth total of 209-3 which proved too steep to overhaul as the Pakistani batting crawled to 142-9 and conceded the seventh and last match as well as the series 4-3 to England at the Gaddafi Stadium here on Sunday.
The English batters were the architects of the series clinching performance once again as David Malan hit 78 n.o. (47) and Harry Brook 46 n.o. (29) while Ben Duckett 30 (19), Phil Salt 20 (12) and Alex Hales 18 (13) contributed to the insurmountable total.
Malan was adjudged player of the match for his scintillating knock while Harry Brook was declared player of the series for his reliable batting performance as he was highest run getter 238 for England.
Phil Salt and Alex Hales had started from where they had left in the last match and put the Pakistani bowlers to the sword in the power-play.
The openers had put on 39 runs for the first wicket before Hales fell lbw to Mohammad Hasnain as England lost two quick wickets at the same score when Phil Salt was run out of a superb direct hit from Shadab Khan. Duckett also fell to some good piece of fielding by Mohammad Rizwan.
Malan and Brook were given lives when Malan was dropped twice by Babar Azam and Mohammad Wasim while Brook was also dropped by Babar Azam off Haris Rauf when he was batting on 29.
Haris was the pick of the bowlers who was the most economical bowler for Pakistan conceding 24 runs off his quota of four overs when others bowlers were spanked all over the park. Mohammad Hasnain was the only successful bowler and picked one wicket for 31 runs. Iftikhar Ahmed gave away 34 runs and remained wicketless, Shadab Khan conceded 39 runs in 3 overs, Mohammad Nawaz leaked 12 runs in only one over while Mohammad Wasim was the most costly as he went for 61 runs in his wayward four overs.
Pakistan batters never looked in control of the situation and could not match English heroics as the wicket played sluggish in the second half, a fact which was accepted by Malan in the post match ceremony. Malan said the wicket played well for the first 14 overs but it was on the slower side in the latter overs.
English bowlers bowled with a plan and precision to claim early wickets of the in-form openers Babar Azam 4 (4) and Mohammad Rizwan 1 (4) while the Pakistani middle-order batters could not cope with the challenge and crumbled to the fourth biggest margin of defeat in terms of runs. Shan Masood was the most successful batter for Pakistan who scored 56 off 43 balls while Iftikhar Ahmed 19 (16) and Khushdil Shah 27 (25) could not challenge the English bowlers who learnt from their past mistakes and used the conditions to their advantage.
Short-pitched bowling, pace or no-pace, proved the nemesis for three Pakistan batters fell to slow bouncers from David Willey, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes. Willey got the better of Iftikhar Ahmed while Chris Woakes sent Asif Ali back for yet another low-score. Sam Curran bamboozled Mohammad Nawaz who also fell to a slow short ball.
Chris Woakes was the most successful bowler for England who claimed three wickets for 26 runs including the prized scalp of Babar Azam. David Willey was another successful bowler with two wickets for 22 runs while Reece Topley, Adil Rashid and Sam Curran shared one wicket each.
Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam were the highest run-getters for Pakistan with 316 and 285 runs respectively in the series while Haris Rauf topped the bowlers with 8 wickets.
Moeen Ali led English flies to Australia to take part in a series before the ICC men’s T20 World Cup 2022 while Pakistan fly to New Zealand to participate in a tri-series involving Bangladesh before taking part in the global event from October 16.
