The last international match of the summer takes place on Wednesday when England and Pakistan do battle in a one off T20 international at Old Trafford with England looking to put the disappointment of the World T20 final well behind them and Pakistan looking to end their tour on a high with a win.
England
England head into this T20 match off the back of dominating the ODI series between the two sides and although they lost the final match on Sunday they will be feeling good about the cricket they are playing with the white ball at the minute. Along the way in that series England broke all kinds of records so they are playing good cricket.
England’s T20 play has really improved and that was evident in the World T20 where they made it all the way to the final and looked to have it won before Carlos Brathwaite stole it from them. Since then they have bounced back and thrashed Sri Lanka and this is their second game since that disappointment.
Pakistan
Pakistan didn’t really get going at all in the ODI series although a wonderful partnership between Shoaib Malik and Sarfraz Ahmed guided them to win in the final ODI and gave them something to build on ahead of this match.
Sarfraz has taken over the captaincy of the T20 side with Shahid Afridi no longer around and his side looks to be a lot more attacking with the bat on paper at least. It will be interesting to see how he and his team play here as if they are aggressive then we might see some changes in the ODI set up in the series to come.
Team News
England have called Tymal Mills up for this match but he isn’t expected to start. Sam Billings could be the other one to miss out unless England want to rest someone with the bat. Jos Buttler has been passed fit to return to the side.
Pakistan will be without the likes of Shahid Afridi, Azhar Ali and Mohammad Irfan for this match while Mohammad Hafeez is also missing. Khalid Latif, Imad Wasim and Amad Butt are all expected to feature for the tourists.
Old Trafford
There have been five previous T20 matches on this ground with England winning all three that have been completed and there has been two no results as well. England will know they annihilated Pakistan in the Test series here and will be hoping to do the same in this T20.
Scores here haven’t always been the highest with England playing their final T20 match of the summer quite late in the year and the wicket by then is often tired and taking spin. The ground isn’t the smallest either which doesn’t allow for easiness in finding the boundaries.
Betting
To be fair this isn’t the easiest match in the world to find a bet in. I think England will win the game but I’m not a player of cramped odds in this format of the game and I’m certainly rarely a handicap player and I’m not one on this occasion.
The sixes line doesn’t really interest me either and neither do the player performances but there is one bet I’ve found and that is for England to score more than 48.5 runs in their first six overs. Throughout the ODI series we saw the Pakistan seamers get carted around the park and England’s top four heading into this match are all in excellent form.
Eight an over really isn’t much in the powerplay these days and so with that in mind I’m quite happy to take England to push 50 and probably clear it before their first six overs are done.
Tips
WON – Back England 1st 6 Overs – Over 48.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
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