Haris Rauf stars in a thrilling victory over England in 4th T20

(Football news) In a thrilling final match, Haris Rauf's death bowling skills outweighed Liam Dawson's finishing as Pakistan found a way to win the fourth T20I in Karachi by 3 runs and level the series 2-2. Pakistan were going to win the match when England needed 33 more runs from two overs, with only three wickets in hand but then a brilliant 24-run over then from Mohammad Hasnain turned the game upside down. Hasnain, who had figures of 3-0-16-2, conceded four boundaries and a six in the 18th over, all of which were hit by Dawson. England then were sudden favourites but Rauf picked up two wickets in two balls, including the dangerous wicket of Dawson's to put his side on course to a famous win. Reece Topley run out in the final over sealed the victory as England were bowled out for 163 with four balls to go.

England couldn't chase it down as the hosts bowled brilliantly with the new ball upfront, leaving the visitors tottering at 14/3. Mohammad Nawaz took the wickets of Phil Salt in the first over before Hasnain's twin strike in the next over, which saw the dismissals of Alex Hales and Will Jacks. However, England did manage to recover to 106/4 but then back-to-back wickets of Moeen Ali and the in-form Harry Brook hurt the chase. Dawson did what he did but he couldn't do it for long enough on the night.

In the first innings, the no 1 T20 batsman Mohammad Rizwan scored 88 off 67 and Babar Azam made 36 off 28 as both added 97 runs for the first wicket, getting their team off to another flyer. Rizwan was the main aggressor when he dominated the partnership when he scored 60 off those runs in the partnership. By the end of the PowerPlay, Pakistan were 52/0 as Babar had faced only 11 balls for 13 runs while Rizwan at the other end did the majority of the hitting. The Pakistani wicket keeper went on to complete a 38-ball fifty in the 10th over.

Good starts haven't been an issue for Pakistan but setting good totals have been. Once the overs ticked into the second half of the innings, Babar started to take more risks and that's when England came back into the game as he was caught at deep midwicket off Dawson. While he was replaced in the middle by Shan Masood whose 19-ball 21 kept Pakistan's scoring rate in check despite Rizwan playing a fine knock at the other end. Reece Topley was on hat-trick in the final over but Asif Ali's 3-ball 13*, helped Pakistan get to 166/4. 

Brief Scores: Pakistan 166/4 in 20 overs (Rizwan 88; Topley 2-37) beat England 163 in 19.2 overs (Dawson 34; Rauf 3-32, Nawaz 3-35) by 3 runs

Also read: Takeaways as India win thrilling series against Australia
 

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