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All set for T20 decider

And once on the bus, some of them were up to a bit of a banter on their road trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, going by their twitter feeds and pictures. Ravi Bopara caught a few winks while listening to music. They could afford to put their feet up a little bit. Win or lose, there is no gloom in this dressing room or these individuals. That has been the hallmark of this England team, to be together and rally each other in the best of times and in the worst of times.

It has been a long and sapping tour for the England team where they have seen both ends of the spectrum. One which has seen them drop low and scale a high.

England started as the No.1 Test team in the world but were found out by a testing Pakistan in the four-match Test series of the Mobilink Jazz Cup. England’s result there is all to well known but, with some new faces and a new captain in Alastair Cook, they hit back in the four-match One-Day International series, winning it by the same margin that they lost the Tests. And now, what started as a bad tour, England, with some more new faces and another new captain in Stuart Broad, have a chance to finish it off on a high.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq had called it a decider after they won the Test series and England the ODI series. And so it will be when the two sides lock horns in the final game of the tour—the third Twenty20 International at the Shaikh Zayed International Cricket Stadium on Monday night.

Pakistan won the first T20 in Dubai but England recovered to take the second and hand Misbah his first T20 loss in his seventh game as captain. Now, it is all to play for when the two teams meet in the final game.

New face Jonny Bairstow was the star for England, knocking up an unbeaten 60 from 46 balls and captain Broad was pleased with the youngster. England made 150 for seven, while Pakistan were shot out for 112 as England registered a 38-run win.

“Jonny showed a lot of character. He actually showed experience beyond his years to realise that was probably not going to be a 170 wicket, and to make sure we got to a strong 145-150. He adapted to the conditions really well and with our bowling attack, and fielding display, we were always going to be confident of defending 150 on that wicket,” 
said Broad.

“It’s obviously very pleasing to score the runs, but then again you’ve got to keep backing it up, so with that comes a bit of added pressure. You take that on the chin with scoring runs and you want to keep doing so,” said Bairstow.

Broad was also happy with the bowling attack. “Certainly, the bowling unit did everything we asked of them. You are hunting for early wickets and the bowlers delivered that. Again, Swanny was brilliant, so I think the way we bowled and fielded was fantastic. The guys did themselves proud after a disappointing loss on Thursday. I thought it was a really powerful fielding display from a young athletic team,” Broad said.

Coach Andy Flower said that some of the players had learnt lessons from the Tests. “I think we’ve learned some good lessons from the Test experience. I think you can see some of the learning coming out in some of the batsmen at the moment – which is great to see, because it would be very disappointing to go through those tough experiences and not come out the other side as better players. I think some of them are coming out the other side as better players. A good example would be Kevin Pietersen, who has turned round his form but also has shown us a different method in the one-dayers,” said Flower.

Meanwhile, Pakistan, who have a pretty dangerous bowling attack, will be looking to make sure their batting has a bit more teeth as they aim to win the T20 segment.

james@khaleejtimes.com