T20 World Cup: Pakistan gave challenging target to England with Farhan’s half-century innings

Pallekele. Sahibzada Farhan, who was in great form, scored a competitive score of 164 runs for nine wickets against England on a slow pitch in their ‘do or die’ Super Eight match of the T20 World Cup here on Tuesday with a half-century innings by Sahibzada Farhan. Farhan scored 63 runs in 45 balls, which included seven fours and two sixes.

England’s spin bowlers kept the exact line-length for most of Pakistan’s innings, but Farhan showed a balance of patience and aggression against them. Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson was England’s most successful bowler. He took three wickets for 24 runs with 12 dot balls in four overs.

He stopped Pakistan from reaching around 175 by taking two consecutive wickets in the 18th over. Usman Khan’s shot on his ball was caught by Jamie Overton and Mohammad Nawaz was out LBW on the very next ball. The pace of Pakistan’s innings slowed down a bit after a quick partnership of 49 runs in 4.5 overs for the fourth wicket between Farhan and the returning Fakhar Zaman (25 runs off 16 balls).

Farhan played sweep shots effectively against the spinners and hit off-spinner Will Jacques for a long six over cow corner. Zaman hit some powerful shots, but missed reading Adil Rashid’s googly and Overton took a brilliant catch while running backwards to dismiss him.

Overton (two wickets for 26 runs in four overs) after hitting sixes and fours on consecutive balls, trapped Farhan LBW with an accurate yorker. Earlier, Saim Ayub’s technique was once again exposed against Joffra Archer (2 wickets for 32 runs in four overs).

While trying to play a pull shot on a fast and shot ball, he could not get the timing right and was caught near the leg square boundary. Captain Salman Ali Aga’s poor tournament continued when Overton took a brilliant catch to give Dawson his first success of the match.

While Farhan kept some control on his natural game after the powerplay, Babar Azam (25 runs off 24 balls) once again struggled to increase the run rate. Both added 46 runs in 7.2 overs, but no big shots were hit. To reduce the pressure, Babar tried to play a big shot on Overton and was bowled. Shadab Khan (23 runs in 11 balls) hit four fours in the last overs to take the team’s score to 164 runs.