Babar Azam-led Pakistan have taken a 3-2 lead in the seven-T20I series with another thrilling win while defending. Debutant Aamer Jamal showed his class under pressure and managed to defend 15 runs in the final over against Moeen Ali. In a low-scoring encounter at Gaddaffi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan won the match by six runs.
England's run chase was derailed in the powerplay overs as Philip Salt (3) and Alex Hales (1) lost their wickets to Haris Rauf and Mohammad Nawaz respectively. In the powerplay overs, Mohammad Wasim Jr struck and got the wicket of Ben Duckett. Before the halfway stage, England lost Harry Brook as well. Dawid Malan was looking to play the anchor role. Iftikhar Ahmed trapped him in front of the stumps. Malan scored 36 runs from 35 deliveries including six fours.
Skipper Ali got the run chase back on track. He had support from Sam Curran. Debutant Jamal got the crucial breakthrough in the 15th over. Ali went ballistic in the slog overs but Chris Woakes struggled to get the big hits away. In-form Rauf got the wicket of Woakes in the penultimate over who scored nine runs from just 12 deliveries.
In the last over, England needed 15 runs to win the match with Ali on strike. The 26-year-old started off with two deliveries and a wide. He hit a six off the third ball but could not continue the assault. David Willey got the strike off the last ball as visitors needed six runs to take the game in to super over. Willey could not manage to get under the ball as Pakistan won the nail-biter by six runs. The debutant conceded just eight runs from the pressure final over. Ali remained unbeaten for 51 off 37 deliveries including two fours and four sixes.
After winning the toss, Ali opted to field first. With the new ball, Mark Wood struck in his third over to get rid of Azam. The skipper managed just nine runs from 12 deliveries. Willey struck in the powerplay overs and removed Shan Masood. Meanwhile, Rizwan did the bulk of scoring. Wood and Willey struck again to dismiss Haider Ali (4) and Iftikhar (15). Wood struck twice in the 12th over and dismissed Asif Ali for a single-digit score.
Pakistan's lower middle-order crumbled as well. Nawaz got run out for a three-ball duck. It was followed by the run out of Shadab. The hosts were reduced to 100/7 in the 14th over. In the 15th over, Rizwan got to his half-century from 37 deliveries. In the 19th over, Pakistan got all out for 145. In the 18th over, Rizwan got out after scoring 63 runs off 46 deliveries including two fours and three sixes. Only Adil Rashid leaked runs as he conceded 41 runs from his quota of four overs.
