England beat Pakistan by 45 runs at Leeds

Leeds: Jos Buttler’s 59-run knock and Saqib Mahmood’s three-wicket haul helped England defeat Pakistan by 45 runs in the second T20I of the three-match series here at Headingley on Sunday.

With this win, England has levelled the three-match series at 1-1 and the series decider will now be played on Tuesday.

Chasing 201, Pakistan got off to a flying start as openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan put on 50 runs in quick succession. However, England came back in the sixth over as Saqib Mahmood dismissed Babar (22). Sohaib Maqsood played an innings of 15 runs off just 10 balls but he was dismissed by Adil Rashid and Pakistan was reduced to



71/2 in the 9th over.

Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali then dismissed Rizwan (37) and Mohammad Hafeez (10) in quick succession and Pakistan was reduced to 93/4, still needing 106 runs to win off just 47 balls.

Shadab Khan (36*) and Imad Wasim (20) showed some resistance with the bat but Pakistan kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and no batsmen managed to stay at the crease for a long time. As a result, England registered a victory by 45 runs. Earlier, Jos Buttler’s knock of 59 runs aided with useful knocks by Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali helped England post 200 in the allotted twenty overs.