Pakistan end their tour of England on Tuesday night when the two sides face off in the third and final T20 international at Old Trafford. These are weird times but it has been great to see international cricket and it would probably be fitting were Pakistan to end the tour with something to their name.
If they win this match they will go home with a share of the series in hand but England are a ruthless machine in white ball cricket these days and they’ll be looking for a second straight success to seal the overall spoils themselves.
England
There was some good stuff and some not so good stuff from England in that previous match. The good was clearly their batting and they had worked out their issues of the opening fixture and put it right in no uncertain terms. The bad was the bowling where they were more than a little off and paid the price for that. To be fair to their bowlers that was the first T20 they have bowled in for months so we should maybe cut them a little slack.
England didn’t assess the pitch very well with the ball and as a result their change ups just became cannon fodder for a good Pakistan batting line up. They will need to improve in that department and do it quickly as the Australians are over at the end of the week. The positive was the batting but that might have been helped by the fact that they were chasing and knew what they had to do. It will be interesting to see how they fare if they are put into bat first.
Pakistan
In truth Pakistan didn’t do a whole lot wrong in that last game. They were fantastic with the bat and although their bowling was made to look ordinary, it should be said they ran into a rampant England batting line up on top form and wasn’t helped at all by the loss of Mohammad Amir early on in their bowling effort. His skills at the death and the fact Babar wouldn’t have had to use as much of the part-timer as he did could have if not changed the result made it a bit closer.
The thing Pakistan don’t need to do here is panic. There were a few things in that last game that were tiny margins from going their way. Had Eoin Morgan been given out early in his innings then umpires call would have kept with that decision and the blitz that followed wouldn’t have happened. If there is one thing Pakistan could do better it is utilise their key bowlers in the bigger overs a little better but that is nit picking really.
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Team News
England have named their squad for the Australia matches so this is the last chance for those in this squad who aren’t in that one to get a game. David Willey would fall into that bracket and he could come in maybe for Saqib Mahmood who wasn’t particularly effective on Sunday.
It would appear as though Pakistan are going to be without Mohammad Amir for this one after he left the field early on Sunday. Wahab Riaz would be a natural replacement for him as a like-for-like in his position.
Betting
I like the runs to continue to flow in this match. We should be on a fresh pitch here and with the weather having been fine there is no reason why there won’t be the same pace and bounce that was in that first one. Ultimately these sides set up for runs because this England attack isn’t the most economical while their batting just goes after the opposition whatever the situation and circumstance, so naturally runs should continue to flow.
The runs line for this match is 322.5 but I’m not convinced that is high enough. We had almost 400 runs here on Sunday and 131 from the 16.1 overs that were played in damp conditions on Friday. This is usually a high scoring ground and as we saw on Sunday the boundaries are perfectly accessible for the big and brutal hitters as well as the stroke players. There should be no demons in the pitch so I’m expecting to see more than 322.5 runs here.
Tips
WON – Back Over 322.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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