Half-centuries from middle order batsmen Babar Azam and Sohail took Pakistan on a fighting total of 173 runs in the one-off T20 match at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff today.
Babar scored 65 off 42 balls with five boundaries and three sixes on 154.76 strike rate while Haris Sohail played a knocking inning of 50 runs off 36 with five boundaries and one six on 138.88 run rate.
Jofra Archer picked three wickets while Tom Curran picked one wicket in the game.
England came into this game after a disappointing display against Ireland in a one-off one-dayer in Malahide on Friday which they won by four wickets.
Chasing 199 to win, England slipped to 101 for six as Ireland’s 19-year-old debutant bowler Josh Little made the most of seaming conditions to claim 4-45.
Pakistan on the other hand, have so far been impressive in all three of their matches against county sides, beating Kent by 100 runs, Northamptonshire by eight wickets and Leicestershire by 58 runs.
Pakistan is, however, be without the services of senior batsman Shoaib Malik who was granted a 10-day leave.
Mohammad Amir is also in the spotlight after having been left out of the preliminary World Cup squad. In his only game on tour so far, he picked up one wicket.
England on the other hand, have called up uncapped Sussex batsman Phil Salt to replace Dawid Malan for Sunday’s game after Malan suffered a groin injury while batting against Ireland.
However, England will not be fielding their strongest line-up as the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes will not feature here after their IPL stints.
The focus will be on Barbados-born fast bowler Jofra Archer who made an impressive debut against Ireland.
Line-ups
Pakistan: 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Babar Azam, 3 Imam-ul-Haq, 4 Haris Sohail, 5 Asif Ali, 6 Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt/wk), 7 Faheem Ashraf, 8 Imad Wasim, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Mohammad Hasnain
England: 1 James Vince, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Joe Denly, 6 Ben Foakes (wk), 7 David Willey, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Tom Curran
