ENG v PAK 2024, ENG vs PAK 4th T20I Match Report, May 30, 2024
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England 158 for 3 (Salt 45, Rauf 3-38) beat Pakistan 157 (Usman 38, Livingstone 2-17, Rashid 2-27, Wood 2-35) by seven wickets
Rashid triggers collapse
Rizwan and Babar had given Pakistan a platform, but what happened off the final ball of the powerplay was more significant than anything that went before. The Pakistan captain edged one to short third, which Rashid held on to. The openers have often been accused of slowing down after the powerplay, so when Rashid breached Rizwan’s defences next over, the middle order had their platform laid out for them. But Fakhar Zaman holed out as Rashid took a sharp catch during a passage of play when he simply couldn’t be kept out of the game. He returned to clean up Shadab Khan first ball, with Mark Wood’s sheer pace sending Azam Khan packing for a five-ball duck. His nightmare was only just beginning.
Livingstone’s bowling heroics
Every time Livingstone was thrown the ball by Buttler, it seemed like the time for Pakistan to sneak in a big over. And yet, the spinner found a way to bowl perfect lines to perfectly set fields; the big shot never quite seemed to be on. But not content with being milked for 16 in his first two, Livingstone bowled the most impactful over of the game in the 15th, sending down a double-wicket maiden. Pakistan’s top-scorer Usman holed out to Jordan before Shaheen Afridi smeared at one that eventually hit his stumps. By the time Livingstone was done, the last dregs of Pakistan’s batting resistance had been stomped out of them.
The onslaught
On a wicket as true as this, surely Pakistan’s pace quartet would find a way to keep England honest, right? Right?
Wrong. Shaheen and Naseem might have been slightly unlucky to concede 18 without reward in the first two, but everything that followed was a one-sided drubbing. Even the pace of the wicket played in the batters’ favour, the touch and timing of Buttler and Salt meaning caresses flew to the boundary. Pakistan’s bowlers, flustered and harried, found their lengths wavering and their pace one-dimensional. It was only too easy for England’s openers to take full advantage.
Azam’s day out
Azam receiving a snorter of a short ball he wasn’t mobile enough to evade was just the start of his horror day. With his credentials as a middle-order batter severely diminished by his stint in the side, his status as their wicketkeeper also took a battering. Stationed there only because he can’t be hidden elsewhere, he dropped two straightforward chances off an otherwise impressive Rauf, with his embarrassment so palpable it was borderline uncomfortable viewing. When he eventually did grasp a straightforward catch, Rizwan jogged up to give him a pat on the back. You would imagine it isn’t long before Rizwan is stood there permanently again.
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