Pakistan beat England in 4th t20 match by 3 runs

Pakistan sneaked home past England by three runs in a wild, mad game at the National Stadium in Karachi to level the series 2-2.  In a game that ebbed and flowed so often that a three-hour contest took on the feeling of an epic, England played themselves into a seemingly unassailable position at the very end, before all of a sudden playing themselves back out of it.  In pursuit of 167, the visitors were one shot away from victory with three wickets in hand, before Haris Rauf tore through the lower order to leave a heartbroken England stranded against all odds.

 Put in to bat first, Pakistan got off to an impressive start with a 97-run opening stand, but found themselves squeezed through the middle and death, losing much of the momentum they had built up.  Liam Dawson's removal of Babar Azam looked even better in hindsight, given it brought a struggling Shan Masood to the crease, and Moeen Ali's side wrestled the momentum back.  At the end of their 20 overs, it appeared as if Pakistan were well short, having burdened their bowling attack with defending a mediocre total against the world's most explosive batting line-up.

 But the hosts refused to give in, with three early wickets ensuring this wouldn't be the cakewalk it had previously seemed.  But England soon illustrated the difference in the approach both sides take to the construction of a T20 innings, with Harry Brook and Ben Duckett continuing to go after the bowlers, determined not to fall too far behind the asking rate.  Moeen continued in quite the same vein for a 20-ball 29, and for a while, it looked like the jitters were over, and England were back on course.

 But the regular fall of wickets kept Pakistan in the hunt, until a devastating display of clutch hitting by Dawson in the 18th over seemed to swing the pendulum England's way once and for all.  But having cracked five fours and a six in the space of eight legal deliveries to leave just five required off nine, a loose shot by Dawson found midwicket's hands, and Rauf sent debutant Olly Stone packing by knocking back his off stump first-ball.  With one wicket to go, England lost their composure, setting off for a suicidal single in desperation to give Adil Rashid the strike.  Shan Masood hit timber, and Pakistan had struck gold.

 The self-imposed squeeze

 Having laid the platform Babar and Mohammad Rizwan can reliably be trusted to set so regularly, Pakistan had worked themselves into a decent position after eight overs.  However, as has happened much too frequently, the struggle through the middle overs manifested itself for Pakistan once more, as they sleepwalked towards a below-par total.  England's use of their bowling resources, as well as their execution, was canny enough, but the drop in intensity from the hosts was unmistakable.  Masood could not come close to the fluency with which he had graced the third T20I, limping to a 19-ball 21 as the bigger hitters waited their turn in the dig-out.

 Rizwan's tempo dropped by a couple of notches following the Powerplay;  Having raced along to a 26-ball 38 after six overs, he would take 40 balls to add the next fifty.  From the start of the ninth over until his dismissal in the 20th, Pakistan struck just three fours and a six.  Quite what Asif Ali would have made of that was anyone's guess, particularly since two of the three balls he did face went for enormous sixes over cow corner.  Pakistan, once more, appeared to have made the fundamental T20 error of overvaluing wickets and undervaluing runs.