England clinches T20 series from Pakistan in the hair-raisng last two overs

The last T20 match between Pakistan and England at Abu Dhabi's Sheikh Zyed International stadium was awesome, interesting and hair-raising in the final overs of the play Monday.

Electing to bat, England was contained by Pakistan's bowlers and they could only give a target of 130 to Pakistan to follow. Except for Pietersen's 62 (not out), no other Englishman could withstand the Pakistan's bowlers onslaught. Saeed Ajmal bagged four wickets for 23.

When it came to Pakistan, all seemed to be going well till the 18th over. Pakistan was well poised to win with 4-107 with 23 needed off the last three overs and 17 off the remaining two. But then the resilience and superb bowling performance from England did its magic. Dernbach and Broad took the three important important wickets, Misbah being the last to be drastically clean bowled to end the game. Pakistan lost by 5 runs. Afridi was run out for 3.

 KP Pietersen (England) rightly claimed both titles -  Player of the match  and  Player of the series for his outstanding performance as a batsman.

England squad proudly flies back after clinching both ODI and T20 trophies. Pakistan comes back with the Test Series trophy, but with a heavy heart of losing miserably the other two trophies. England does deserve a good pat for their superb performance, even after lost the test series - which give them more confidence to win. On the other hand, Pakistan's over confidence and poor batting made them lose the ODIs and T20s.

The match ended England's long tour of the United Arab Emirates who now fly to Sri Lanka in two week's time ahead of their two-Test series, while Pakistan are next in action in the Asia Cup, which begins on March 11.

Pakistan's managers, selectors, trainers and captains will now have to do a lot of homework, chalking out their future strategy, besides training their batsman who are continuously failing in the limited over matches. 

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3rd T20 England vs Pakistan: Free Live Streaming Abu Dhabi 27 Feb 2012

And finally the last match between Pakistan and England is being played Monday, 27 February 2012 at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. 

England and Pakistan went to cricket from 19 January, when they played their first test at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The Pakistan teams was drumbeat about the 3:0 whitewash win over the Englishmen and were praised for their superb bowling and batting.  

But then suddenly something went wrong - terribly wrong for Pakistan. The four matches ODI series was a severe debacle which took out the euphoria of happiness, pride and winning spree from Pakistan squad as they lost all four matches miserably. While bowlers bowled extremely well, it seemed batsman were not in the winning mood. In none of the four ODIs, Pakistani batsmen clicked. Whereas on the other hand, the English squad played magnificently, confidently and professionally. England proudly whitewashed the ODI series and took a befitting revenge of their defeat in the test matches series.

Then came the T20s - many speculated that Pakistan will strike back scoring in tons - but what happened was disgusting and discouraging. The batsmen failed to win the first two matches, while bowlers with their excellent bowling helplessly watched their comrades coming back to pavilion one after the other as if in a hurry to go shopping.

Tomorrow is the last of the three match series T20 match to be played at Abu Dhabi, which brings an end to the England-Pakistan cricket. It remains to be seen on which note the game ends: whether Pakistan makes a last ditch 'do or die' effort to win tomorrow's match to win the T20 series or England outplays Pakistan and dumps Pakistani batsmen as they have done since the ODIs.

The likely opposing teams are as under:

England: SCJ Broad*, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, DR Briggs, JC Buttler†, JW Dernbach, ST Finn, AD Hales, C Kieswetter†, EJG Morgan, SR Patel, KP Pietersen, GP Swann

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq*, Abdur Rehman, Adnan Akmal†, Aizaz Cheema, Asad Shafiq, Awais Zia, Hammad Azam, Imran Farhat, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz

The match will be played at 16:00 GMT or 20:00 Local Time and 21:00 Pakistan Standard Time.

The links for the free live streaming of the third and last T20 match between England and Pakistan are given as herein under:

Link#1   Link#2   Link#3   Link#4

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Pakistan vs England - 2nd T20: Free Live Streaming from Dubai 25 Feb 2012

After a tit for tat whitewash ODI series win by England, the defeat in the first T20 match Thursday was a great shocker for the Englishmen. While they contended that limited overs matches were different from the test series and that ODIs were the platform to display their strengths, the same analogy could not apply to the T20 which was even more limited than ODIs when they lost to Pakistan.

But that was the first match, say the England squad members and have their sights set for the second 20 tomorrow at Dubai. However they have to find an answer to the superior Pakistan bowling. And there is not or two but quite a number of them to tackle. Umer Gul was in his best form in the frst T20 when he dismissed 3 for 18. Although five runs short of Swan who bagged 3 for 13, but Umer Gul's 3 wickets really flabbergasted the English middle order batsmen and they just crumbled one after the other.

On the other hand, Afridi, Ajmal, Hafeez really teased the Englishmen. After 15th over it seemed that England has virtually thrown over the match. 

But after the defeat, the English camp is really determined for a 2-1 win over Pakistan and the onus lies on their bowlers to not to allow the rather weak batting line to score more Saturday tomorrow in the second T20. But that is just a resolve and determination. What actually happens on ground is altogether a different ballgame. 

The win has given Pakistan confidence that was lost after the ODI series and they would certainly want to cash on it in the second match to win the series so that the taste of 3-0 test series win doesn't get spoiled.

The venue and time remain the same: Dubai International Stadium at 1600 GMT

Pakistan Squad against England in 2nd T20 is as under:

Misbah-ul-Haq (c),Abdur Rehman,Adnan Akmal (wk),Aizaz Cheema,Asad Shafiq,Awais Zia,Hammad Azam,Imran Farhat,Junaid Khan,Mohammad Hafeez,Saeed Ajmal,Shahid Afridi,Shoaib Malik,Umar Akmal,Umar Gul,Wahab Riaz

As for England, following is likely to be the squad against Pakistan:

Stuart Broad (c),James Anderson,Jonny Bairstow,Ravi Bopara,Tim Bresnan,Danny Briggs,Jos Buttler (wk),Jade Dernbach,Steven Finn,Alex Hales,Craig Kieswetter ,Eoin Morgan,Samit Patel,Kevin Pietersen,Graeme Swann

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England vs Pakistan: T20 Series - First Match 23 Feb Free Live Streaming

And finally it was England's turn to whitewash the ODI series against Pakistan. In Tuesday's match Pakistan seemed to be in good shape till the fifth wicket but then it was disaster all the way. Choosing to bat, Pakistan could make 237 - but it also proved to be much for the England this time as the match ended in England's favour with only four balls remaining. 

Well played England all along in the ODI series and congratulations for the first ODI whitewash.

As for Pakistan, the batsmen failed again and could not capitalize on the initial good score. Asad and Umar Akmal added beautiful 58 and 65 and later Misbah who added 46 to the score. But thereafter nothing happened. Afridi was back home with only 9 and could not Boom Boom despite many placards insisting him to. Dernbach was the most successful bowler taking four wickets for 45. Finn and Briggs took two each. 

On the other hand, it was Pietersen's day again who stroked beautifully and made his consecutive centurey like Cook in the first two ODIs and made remarkable 130. But that was lla as no other English batsman was able to add anything recordable except Kieswetter who added valuable 43. 

In a way England was not up to its mark today and could barely reach the target with just four balls remaining. Saeed Ajmal did make stay uneasy for the Englishmen who took 3 for 62.

Well then, it is all over with 4:0 whitewash win for England - the revenge for Test Series whitewash adequately and befittingly taken.

Now it is T20s coming from Thursday, 23 February. England is well tuned and primed now for limited overs matches and one can foresee difficult days for Pakistan ahead. Unless Pakistan batsmen play responsibly, Pakistan would be in danger in the T20s too. 

The opposing teams are composed as under:


England: SCJ Broad*, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, DR Briggs, JC Buttler†, AN Cook, JW Dernbach, ST Finn, AD Hales, C Kieswetter†, EJG Morgan, SR Patel, KP Pietersen, GP Swann

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq*, Abdur Rehman, Adnan Akmal†, Aizaz Cheema, Asad Shafiq, Awais Zia, Hammad Azam, Imran Farhat, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz

The first match is being played at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 23 February at 16:00 GMT. 

The live streaming links for the match are given below:

Link#1  Link#2  Link#3. Link#4  Link#5

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Wtach Live Online: Australia vs india 2nd T20 [Melbourne 3 Feb 2012]

Having lost the all tests and the first T20, India takes on Australia Friday. The host Australians, who ousted the visiting Indians in the first T20 by 31 runs on Wednesday are in high spirits and are waiting eagerly to performa repat performance today, 3 February in their second encounter with the Indians in the 2nd T20 match.

The wicket at Melbourne is batsman supportive and now its up to the tourists to make a last ditch effort to avoid any further humiliation before going home.

The likely players' list of both sides are as given below:

Australia squad

GJ Bailey*, DA Warner, TR Birt, DT Christian, XJ Doherty, JP Faulkner, AJ Finch, GB Hogg, DJ Hussey, B Lee, CJ McKay, MR Marsh, SE Marsh, MS Wade†

 India squad

MS Dhoni*†, R Ashwin, G Gambhir, RA Jadeja, Z Khan, V Kohli, P Kumar, PA Patel†, IK Pathan, SK Raina, V Sehwag, R Sharma, RG Sharma, SR Tendulkar, MK Tiwary, R Vinay Kumar, U Yadav 

Play begins at 08.35 GMT on Friday 3rd February.

Watch free live stream from the link given below:

Link

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Australia vs India [ 1st T20I ] Live from Sydney 1st Feb 2012

Frost T20 being played between visiting India and Australia at Sydney Wednesday 

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