Pakistan defeated England by 31 runs in the first match of the three-match T20I series. With this win, the team has taken a 1-0 lead. Chasing the target of 233 runs, England collapsed for 201 runs. Liam Livingstone scored a tremendous century for the English team. He scored the fastest century for England in T20.
Livingstone hit nine sixes and six fours in a brilliant inning of 103 off 43 balls. For Pakistan, Shadab Khan overturned the match in the 17th over by dismissing Lewis Gregory (10) and Livingstone. The team got out after scoring 201 runs in 19.2 overs. Opener Jason Roy (32 off 13 balls) was the only batsman other than Livingstone to trouble Pakistan's bowlers for long. Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shadab Khan took three wickets each for Pakistan.
Batting first, Pakistan scored 232 runs for six wickets in 20 overs. This is the team's best score in T20. Before this, the team's best score was 205. Captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan shared 150-run partnership for first wicket. Rizwan scored 63 runs in 41 balls (eight fours, one six). He was dismissed by Lewis Gregory in the 15th over. After this, Sohaib Maqsood played short but explosive innings. He scored 19 runs in seven balls with the help of two sixes before being dismissed by Tom Curran.
Babar played brilliant innings of 85 runs off 49 balls (eight fours, three sixes) before being dismissed by David Willey. Mohammad Hafeez and Fakhar Zaman took the team to this huge score with a brilliant partnership of 46 runs in just 16 balls. Fakhar scored 26 runs in eight balls. Pakistan added 152 runs in the last 10 overs of their innings. For England, Curran took two wickets for 47 runs in four overs. The second T20 match will be played at Headingley Leeds on Sunday.
