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Eng Vs Pak 3Rd T20i Babar Azam And Co Fumble Once Again As Rashid Jason Roy Win England Series

ENG vs PAK | 3rd T20I: Babar Azam and co. fumble once again as Rashid, Jason Roy win England series

England continued their brilliant run of form against Pakistan and won the third and final T20 of the series by three wickets to etch a 2-1 win in the three-match series.

Chasing 155 in 20 overs, England started the proceedings well as openers Jason Roy and Jos Buttler put 67 on the board for the first wicket before. However, Buttler departed for 21 off 22 and left Roy to do the bulk of the damage to the Pakistan bowling attack. Roy notched up a usually aggressive half-century and scored a magnificent 36-ball 64 before he was undone by Usman Qadir.

His departure derailed a bit of England's batting momentum in the middle phase and they were reduced to 112/4. Then, captain Eoin Morgan, who came in at number five to bat, took the onus on himself and scored a quick 12-ball 21 to provide resistance to his side.

England eventually chased down the target in the last over with two balls to spare.

For Pakistan, it was Mohammad Hafeez, who was the pick of the bowlers and returned with a three-wicket haul while Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Qadir and Shadab Khan picked up one wicket apiece.

Earlier, Pakistan, too, had a decent start to the innings on the back of Mohammad Rizwan, who took on the English bowlers and hammered them all around the park. The wicket-keeper batsman stitched a 42-run stand with skipper Babar Azam for the first wicket in just 5.2 overs.

Babar though was sent packing by Adil Rashid after getting stumped out for 11 off 13. Pakistan were then in a spot of bother after losing a couple of more wickets quickly but Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman steadied the ship for the visitors as the two built a partnership of 45 runs for the fourth wicket.

England pulled things back in their favour as they scalped some wickets and left Pakistan tottering at 129/6 in the 18th over. But Rizwan held the innings from one end and remained unbeaten 57-ball 76 to take the visitors to 154/6 in 20 overs.

Adil Rashid bagged a fourfer for England while Moeen Ali picked up one wicket.

Morgan hailed the efforts of his side and lauded the way the batsmen fared at the start.

“It means a huge amount. The way we play, this is the worst possible conditions for us. But we have been pushing our boundaries. But even I think the ball won't turn anywhere near as much as it did today even in the UAE as I played in the IPL last season. The guys at the top of the order set up the chase despite Jos not having a good day. Two three fantastic performances have come up despite limited chances,” he said.

Babar Azam admitted that the side was 10-15 runs short but the bowlers did put up a fight which eventually went in vain.

“We were 10-15 runs short. We wanted to fight and we did. Unfortunately, we couldn't win. We could have scored few runs more at the top of the order. We played a few bad shots. We generally play the spinners well. There will be good days and bad days. The support here will be missed,” he said.

Pakistan had won the first encounter of the series but England made a fine return to win the second and third match respectively.

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Deepak Chahar recalls Rahul Dravid's belief on him after match-winning knock

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Tamim Iqbal out for eight weeks; will miss Zimbabwe T20Is, Australia and New Zealand series at home

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Watch: 40-year-old Rajagopal Sathish bags second-best figures in TNPL's history

Rajagopal Sathish a familiar name for those who follow domestic cricket in India continues to spring surprises as he picked up 5/10 in the second game of the Tamil Nadu Premier League’s 2021 edition. This is the second-best figure in the league’s five season’s history so far. The record for the best figure's is held by Sathish's teammate Ramadoss Alexandar who recorded 5/9 against Trichy Warriors in 2019. Playing for Chepauk Super Gillies, the two-time champions at their home ground of M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, the 40-year-old struck in the very first cover removing S Dinesh of the Tiruppur Tamizhans. The wily old fox then came back in his second over which was the third over of the innings and removed two more Tiruppur batters S Aravind and P Francis Rokins. As if all this was not enough, the 41 First-Class matches and 67 T20 matches veteran bowled all his four overs on a trot removing Tushar Raheja and R Rajakumar in his third and fourth over respectively and putting the Tiruppur team in all sorts of trouble, reducing them to 24-6 in only the seventh over of the innings. All these efforts by the Tiruchchirappalli born however summarised to nothing as the match was eventually called off due to incessant rain at the venue. This is now the second successive game since the start of the tournament on July 20 that has been called off.

SL vs IND | 2nd ODI: Deepak Chahar - Suryakumar Yadav dig deep, inspire India to series win

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