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England Vs Pakistan T20: Yardy And Morgan Won First T20 For England

By Kabir Bedi - Sunday, September 5th, 2010   |   994 views   |  

After so much pandemonium of match fixing today Pakistan team got back on the ground against England. It was a T20 match between England vs Pakistan. This Eng vs Pak T20 match was very important for both the teams because Pakistan needed to restore its lost pride whereas England needed something to satisfy themselves after their swashbuckling performance in the test series got frittered due too match fixing revelation.

So today in this paramount T20 encounter of England vs Pakistan England Captain Paul Collingwood won the toss and choose to bowl first.  So after being put in to bat first on a very damp and wet sort pitch Pakistan team got off to poor start as they lost opener Kamran Akmal very cheaply. Kamran got out when the scoreboard was showing only 13 runs on the board. Kamran Akmal did not trouble scorers too much during his very small innings of 6 runs only.

After the fall of Kamran Akmal’s wicket other Opener Shahzaib Hasan got the company of Mr. Experienced Mohammed Yusuf. Both of them added 37 runs for the partnership of 2nd wicket. So far Pakistan was looking all set for posting a skyscraper of runs on the board. But all of a sudden once again English spinner Graeme Swann Spun his fingers and trapped Mr. Experienced Mohammed Yusuf in his net. Before getting out to Graeme Swann Mohammed Yusuf made 26 runs in 21 balls.

It seems as if Mohammed Yusuf was playing this England Vs Pakistan T20 match under some misconception. Perhaps he was thinking that he is playing in a 50 overs game. His run a ball innings testifies about it loudly. But we can not blame him only although it was a T2o game in which he played at snails pace because the conditions were very damp and wet moreover, playing strokes here was extremely difficult especially when English bowlers were bowling at wonderful line and length. So the way Mohammed Yusuf played in this England vs Pakistan T20 match some credit can be given to English bowlers also.

After Mohammed Yusuf got out to Graeme Swann gave one more big jolt to Pakistan as he removed another set batsman Shahzaib Hasan just at the score of 56 runs. Before getting out Shahzaib Hasan made 21 runs in 35 balls. His innings was also a replica of Mohammed Yusuf’s innings.

After the fall of Shahzaib’s Hasan’s wicket Fawad Aalam came in the middle and replicated Mohammed Yusuf and Shazaib Hasan. He made only 20 runs in 29 balls. Fawad Aalam bas caught and bowled by Michele Yardy on his own bowling. So far Pakistan was in all sorts of trouble because 15 overs had been bowled so far and only 88 runs were on the board.

But then Umar Akmal and Shahid Afridi got together and somehow both of them took the total up to 126 runs on the loss of 4 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. But Umar Akmal depended upon singles and doubles largely instead of showing big hands. So in other words we can say that he too replicated Mohammed Yusuf. He made 35 runs in 43 balls. But the biggest surprise package was Boom Boom Afridi who is usually known for beating the hell out of bowlers all the time. Shahid Afridi made 16 runs and that too not in 3-4 balls. He made 16 runs in 19 balls. So all in all we can say that he too replicated Mohammed Yusuf.

For England Graeme Swann was the pick of the bowlers. He bowled his 4 overs and scalped 2 wickets just at the cost of 14 runs whereas Yardy and Bresnan took 1 wicket each.

So now it was the turn of England to bat and try to seal a win here on a very damp and extremely wet pitch. When English openers Kieswetter and Davies came in the middle to bat England soon received first blow. First man to get out from England side was Kieswetter as he too did not trouble the scorers much and followed the footprints of Pakistani opener Kamran Akmal. Kieswetter made only 6 runs. When Kieswetter got out at that time scoreboard was showing only 9 runs.

After the fall of Kieswetter’s wicket Ravi Bopara joined Davies. Both of them added 33 runs for the partnership of second wicket. When England’s total reached 42 runs then England lost another wicket of Bopara who made only 11 runs in 20 balls by following the footprints of Mohammed Yusuf.

But on the other hand Davies kept one end held strongly. But so far England had not properly recovered from the loss of Bopara and Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar came out with another furious snottier bang on target. It was full. It was straight but most importantly it was fast, furious and bang on target. British Captain completely failed in order to handle this furious Yorker of Rawalpindi Express Shoaib Akhtar. Before getting out Collingwood made only 4 runs.

But then shortly after the fall of Collingwood’s wicket England got another big blow. This time quickie Umar Gul got into the action and removed Davies on 38 runs. Davies too followed the footprints of Mohammed Yusuf and made 38 runs in 41 balls. So far But then Pakistan T20 Captain Shahid Afridi also produced a stunning delivery to get rid of Luke Wright. Luke too did not trouble the scorers at all and went back to pavilion with a huge duck alongside his name on the very first ball he faced.

So far English team was in all sorts of trouble in this England Vs Pakistan T20 match. Now England was on back foot after loosing 5 wickets only at the score of 62 runs in 9.5 overs. But then came Eoin Morgan and Yardy who did the rescue job with calm mind. Both of them added 67 runs for the partnership of 6th wicket and won the match for their side with 17 balls remaining. Eoin Morgan made 38 runs in 33 balls   and followed the footprints of Mohammed Yusuf whereas his partner Yardy also made 33 runs in 25 and he too followed the footprints of Mohammed Yusuf.

In this way England got to their target of 127 runs in 17.1 overs with 5 wickets in hand. For Pakistan Rawalpindi Express ran at full pace and bowled 4 overs. In his 4 overs Shoib Akhtar bowled one beautiful maiden over and earned 2 wickets at the cost of 23 runs. Other successful bowler was Captain Afridi who gave 27 in his 4 overs and took two wickets whereas Umar Gul got only 1 wicket.

But after watching the match everybody may be thinking that how Pakistan lost this match? Who is responsible for this lost of Pakistan in this crucial T20 game? But most important question that may be striking in the mind everyone is that has England won it or has Pakistan Lost it? This is the one question that may be striking the mind of everyone including ICC. So there is plenty more to think about because at one stage Pakistan was dominating the match and all of a sudden Pakistan emerged as a surprise looser of the game at the end.

According to the experts Pakistan may have lost this because of their shambolic or school standard fielding but this too raises many questions or doubts because in the past Pakistan has lost many matches deliberately in a same style for the sake of few million bucks. so that is being a doubting-thomas at this lost of Pakistan is obvious.

But as England has won it with the hard work of their players at the dying stages of the match so they too deserve all the credit for this. For his phlegmatic batting and wonderful bowling at crunch time Yardy won the award of man of the match.

Now after winning this crucial England Vs Pakistan T20 match England Leads the 2 match T20 Series by 1-0.

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