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29 March 2024

Gul, Ajmal lift Pakistan as England falter

England's Twenty20 (T20) cricket captain Stuart Broad and Pakistan's captain Misbah-ul-Haq pose for photographers with the T20 series trophy during a press conference at the Dubai International cricket Stadium in Dubai Sports City on February 22, 2012 (AFP)

Published
By Agencies

Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal bowled superbly at the death to inspire Pakistan to an eight-run victory over England in the first Twenty20 international in Dubai on Thursday.

World champions England looked to be cruising to a target of 145 following a quickfire 33 from the in-form Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Bopara's 39 but man-of-the-match Gul dismissed Jos Buttler and Samit Patel with successive deliveries in the 18th over to give Pakistan hope.

Ajmal then bowled a brilliant 19th over of the innings, conceding just four runs, to put Pakistan on the brink of victory with England needing 18 off the last six balls.

Jonny Bairstow and Graeme Swann were unable find the boundary off Junaid Khan's final over and managed just nine runs.

Pakistan, beaten 4-0 in the 50-over one-day series, would clinch the three-match Twenty20 series with victory in the second game in Dubai on Saturday.

England won the toss but Pakistan raced to 36 runs in the first three overs before losing wickets at regular intervals as the scoring rate slowed.

Captain Misbah-ul-Haq struck a huge six in his unbeaten 26 off 26 balls and Shoaib Malik made 39 but Swann completed figures of three for 13 from four miserly overs to restrict Pakistan to 144 for six.

Pietersen, confident following consecutive centuries in the one-day series, struck 13 runs off the first four balls of the England innings and raced to 33 off 21 deliveries before he was brilliantly caught on the leg-side boundary by Asad Shafiq trying to hit his second six.

Bopara made a fluent 39 to put England in control of their chase but Gul returned to dismiss him, Buttler and Patel in rapid succession.

SCORECARD

Pakistan

Mohammad Hafeez c Bairstow b Swann 23

Awais Zia c Broad b Finn 18

Asad Shafiq run out 19

Shahid Afridi c Morgan b Swann 7

Misbah-ul Haq not out 26

Umar Akmal c Dernbach b Swann 0

Shoaib Malik c Bairstow b Dernbach 39

Extras: (lb11, w1) 12

Total: (for six wickets) 144

Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Zia), 2-65 (Shafiq), 3-65 (Hafeez), 4-73 (Afridi), 5-73 (Umar), 6-144 (Malik).

Bowling: Finn 4-0-39-1 (w1), Dernbach 4-0-31-1, Broad 4-0-19-0, Swann 4-1-13-3, Bopara 1-0-8-0, Patel 3-0-23-0

Overs: 20 

England

K. Pietersen c Shafiq b Afridi 33

C. Kieswetter b Hafeez 14

R. Bopara b Gul 39

E. Morgan b Hafeez 14

J. Bairstow not out 22

J. Butler c Ajmal b Gul 3

S. Patel lbw b Gul 0

G. Swann not out 2

Extras: (b1, lb4, w4) 9

Total: (for six wickets) 136

Fall of wickets: 1-48 (Pietersen), 2-51 (Kieswetter), 3-80 (Morgan), 4-113 (Bopara), 5-121 (Butler), 6-121 (Patel).

Bowling: Khan 4-0-42-0, Gul 4-1-18-3, Ajmal 4-0-26-0 (w2), Afridi 4-0-27-1, Hafeez 4-0-18-2 (w2),

Overs: 20

Result: Pakistan won by eight runs

Toss: England

Umpires: Ahsan Raza (PAK) and Shozab Raza (PAK)

Tv umpire: Zameer Haider (PAK)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)