England cruised to a 45-run victory against Pakistan, after a clinical performance, in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) between the two sides at the Yorkshire Cricket Ground in Leeds on Sunday to level the three-match series at one apiece. Chasing a daunting target of 201 runs, Pakistan were off to a solid start as openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan stitched together a breezy 50-run partnership.
Explosive batsman Sohaib Maqsood came out with a lot of intent, racing to 15 runs off 10 balls, before being stumped by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler off the bowling of leg-spinner Rashid Khan. The England spinners then applied a chokehold on the run-scoring options as Pakistan’s batsmen struggled to find regular boundaries. Rashid took advantage of the mounting pressure, removing batsman Mohammad Rizwan (caught and bowled) after he had managed 37 runs off 29 balls.
Off-spinner Moeen Ali joined the fun picking up two crucial wickets to leave Pakistan in all sorts of trouble against the rising required run rate. Ali first removed batsman Mohammad Hafeez (10 off 12), caught by fielder Jonny Bairstow, before cleaning up batsman Fakhar Zaman. Young batsman Azam Khan (one off four) stepped out of his crease but missed a Rashid Khan delivery that was collected by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler for an easy stumping.
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