Pakistan look to counter rampaging England today

LAHORE: A thrilling and nerve-wrecking battle is expected between Pakistan and England in the seventh and final encounter of the T20 series here at the Gaddafi Stadium on Sunday evening.

The series hangs on the knife’s edge with both the teams having won three matches each after a fortune-fluctuating six matches played in Karachi and Lahore.

The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 PM after the toss happening at 07:00 PM, which every team would like to win particularly due to the dew factor that makes it difficult to exert pressure for the team bowling second.

Pakistan will need to put up a much-improved performance if they are to stand any chance of winning the final game and the series. They were very poor in their last outing and will need to raise their game significantly if they are to beat England in their backyard.

One player who Pakistan will be particularly keen to get some runs from is captain Babar Azam. He is one of the world’s best batsmen and his side will need him at his very best if they are looking for a win.

Pakistan were nowhere near their best on Friday although Babar produced an excellent innings. With Mohammad Rizwan and Haris Rauf back in the team they will be very hard to overpower.

Rizwan is the top run-scorer for Pakistan with 315 runs at a strike rate of 140. He has struck 23 fours and 10 sixes. Babar has also made 281 runs at a strike rate of 144. Haris Rauf has been the best bowler for Pakistan and has picked up 8 wickets while bowling at an average of 20 and an economy rate of 8.25. Mohammad Nawaz has taken 5 wickets at an average of 36.

England will be looking to continue their good form from their previous match, where they comprehensively beat Pakistan by eight wickets. On that occasion, it was England’s opener Phil Salt who really stepped up the chase, along with Alex Hales laying the solid foundation to their total while David Willey and Sam Curran both impressed with the ball.

England were almost at their dominant batting best in the sixth game of the series. If one of their batters could pull off another innings like Phil Salt did, there should be another excellent contest.

Ben Duckett is the top run-scorer for England with 203 runs at a strike rate of 159. He has struck 28 fours and one six. Harry Brook has also made 192 runs at a strike rate of 164.

Mark Wood has been the best bowler for England and has picked up six wickets while bowling at an average of 7 and an economy rate of 5.50. Curran has taken six wickets at an average of 24. So an interesting encounter is on cards on Sunday with each team overlapping each other.

The batters have a much easier time on the Gaddafi Stadium surface as compared to the spinners. Keeping in view the previous games, the batters have struggled less at this venue.

The weather conditions are predicted to go around 33°C with partly cloudy with humidity level going up around 60 percent, therefore, there wont be any interruptions from the nature.

Squads:

Pakistan - Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Haider Ali, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Usman Qadir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Abrar Ahmed, Aamer Jamal.

England - Alex Hales, Philip Salt (wk), Dawid Malan, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali (c), Sam Curran, David Willey, Luke Wood, Adil Rashid, Richard Gleeson, Liam Dawson, Olly Stone, Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Tom Helm.