Gul puts England in shade

Gul, one of the best bowlers in T20 cricket, changed the complexion of the game in the 18^th over by taking two crucial wickets.

Gul grabbed three wickets in his four overs and gave away only 18 runs.

Pakistan restricted England to 136-6 in 20 overs to win the match by eight runs. England were off to a brisk start as Kevin Pietersen made 13 runs in Junaid Khan’s first over.

Umar Gul started off well by bowling a maiden.

Craig Kieswetter was dropped on zero by Misbah-ul-Haq in Junaid’s second over.

Shahid Afridi was introduced in the 6^th over and he got the wicket of Pietersen after the in-form batsman had hit a six.

Now England were 48-1 and Ravi Bopara joined Kieswetter in the middle.

England reached 50 in the 7^th over but lost the wicket of Kieswetter when he was cleaned up by Mohammed Hafeez.

Eoin Morgan’s bad run with the bat continued as he departed after scoring 14 off 16 in 13^th over.

Bopara played a sensible innings of 39 off 32 balls to take England closer to victory. But he was bowled by Gul in the 16^th over.

Earlier, Pakistan lost the toss but got what they wanted — they got to bat first. There were two debutants in Pakistan side – Awais Zia and Hammad Azam.

Mohammed Hafeez and Awais gave Pakistan a good start by getting eight runs off Steven Finn’s first over.

Awais played a breezy knock of 18 off 12 balls which included one four and one six.

Pakistan plundered 19 runs in the third over bowled by Finn. Pakistan lost their first wicket at the total of 31 when Awais was caught at mid off by Stuart Broad off the bowling of Finn.

Asad Shafiq was dropped on nine by Graeme Swann. But he got himself run out at the total score of 65 in 8.1 overs. Hafeez followed him on same score as he lofted Swann and was caught by Jonathan Bairstow at deep mid wicket.

Now Shahid Afridi and Misbah-ul-Haq were in the middle to stabilise the innings but Afridi was sent back by Swann in the 11^th over after scoring only 7 runs.

Umar Akmal came and left in the same over to leave Pakistan in dire straits (73-5).

Now Shaoib Malik (39, 33 balls, four fours, one six) joined Misbah in the middle and struggled to score runs in the early part of his innings. He hit a six off Samit Patel’s bowling which helped him regain his confidence.

Misbah and Malik helped Pakistan reach 100 in 16^th over. They kept the score ticking but there were no signs of worry for England as boundaries were hard to come by.

Both the batsmen batted cautiously to help Pakistan set the target of 144 in 20 over.