England v Pakistan: T20 international – live!

8th over: Pakistan 57-2 (Babar 22, Sohail 19) A touch belated, but Pakistan are away! 15 taken from this Jordan over with a six and two fours. Sohail used his feet to give himself the chance to whack the short ball over cow corner over the rope, the first big one of the day. Nicely struck. Next, he cuts delicately using the pace of Jordan, placing into the gap for four more. Babar’s turn, flaying a drive past point to finish, once again into the gap. Classy cricket.

For some reason the embed function isn’t working for me today but check out the first two wickets of England’s 2019 home campaign, here and here.

7th over: Pakistan 42-2 (Babar 18, Sohail 8) Spin now via the leggie Rashid with the field back, the set man Babar driving him down the ground to start. Sohail immediately takes him on, also down the ground, but doesn’t get much of it, the ball landing in front of Archer. Babar gives the strike back to Sohail, Rashid getting his wrong’un out for the first time but the right-hander was up to the task with a clip from the pads. Sohail does likewise to retain the strike. Just four from it though – another good result for England. Jimmy Anderson on TMS doesn’t think that Pakistan are taking enough chances. They’ll need to turn the volume up soon.

“Further to John Starbuck’s point,” begins Matt Dony. “As I understand it, in the early days of the ECB when charters and whatnots were being set up, they wrote to Glamorgan CC to get their thoughts on the name of the representative team. Glamorgan didn’t bother replying, and so the the ECB understandably just went with ‘England’. So it’s basically our own fault.”

I should note that any (unlikely) move to give Wales a team of their own would mean Glamorgan’s exit from the county championship. A shame it has to be that way, but it’s only fair. Tim Wigmore wrote a piece on this topic for The Economist a couple of years ago that I’ll dig out during the innings break.

6th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Babar 16, Sohail 6) Lovely way to get off the mark for Sohail, slamming Jordan’s second ball of the afternoon over point for four. He bounces back well with three dots on the bounce before the left-hander collects a couple off his pads to finish. England wins the power play, no doubt about that.

“Afternoon Adam (afternoon everyone).” Hi Joseph Sweeney. “I wonder given their respective moves up the order this summer, whether the Vince – Duckett opening partnership has been pencilled in for the Ashes? A bit drastic, or the kind of madcap derring-do that made this country ‘great’?”

SIGN ME UP!

Jofra! Imam looked well suited to the 90mph pace early in the over of the super quick, but he’s nabbed him with a short ball, gloved through to the waiting Foakes. That’s all pace. Sure enough, Archer has a wicket in the first over of his T20 debut.

5th over: Pakistan 31-2 (Babar 16, Sohail 0)

4th over: Pakistan 25-1 (Babar 15, Imam 2) The familiar sound of horns hooting from the Pakistan fans around Sophia Gardens, such a major part of the 1999 World Cup when the men in green made it all the way to the final. They don’t have a lot to be excited about in this over, though, Curran keeping Imam, the man on debut, down the business end for all but one delivery with a single behind square the only run. The Surrey all-rounder was very good on Friday too.

3rd over: Pakistan 24-1 (Babar 15, Imam 1) Shoooooot. Babar is a joy to watch when on song, striking a glorious cover drive off Willey here that looks little more a defensive push but the timing is so good that it races into the rope. It’s easy to see why he’s the No1 T20 batsman in the world, boasting an astonishing average of 54. Four other risk-free runs beforehand makes it eight from the over.

We have a weird delay. Running in to begin his second set, Willey has stepped on… a trap door? In the pace before his delivery stride, the left-armer has popped his right foot into the box on the field that looks to contain a bunch of cables. Gee, watching the replay Willey is very lucky not to have turned an ankle. He’s smiling now, but I wouldn’t be. You can’t ask him to change his angle, can you? As Charles Dagnall notes on TMS, that isn’t a good look for the venue.

While we wait, I can tell you that West Indies’ Cambpell and Hope finished their opening stand on 365 in Malahide, in case you were wondering. As Andy Zaltzman says on BBC, that’s the highest opening partnership in the history of ODIs.

Okay, the ground staff have done a bit of bashing with hammers and so forth and Willey is set to start his over again.

What a catch! The skipper Morgan at cover had only enough time to throw up his right hand and he’s pulled down a beauty! Better still, it came at the end of an over where Pakistan collected two boundaries, the now-dismissed Fakhar leaning into a perfectly placed square drive to register the first four of the day before Babar repeated the dose using the pace of the ball to deflect through third slip. But Curran has the last laugh with the dangerous Fakhar out of the way.

2nd over: Pakistan 16-1 (Babar 8)

1st over: Pakistan 6-0 (Fakhar 2, Babar 3) Fakhar is away with a push to cover, Willey then missing his line to Babar to give up an extra. He’s better with his next offering, squaring the right hander up and finding a leading edge that spits out to third man for a single. Fakhar gives the strike back with another single to cover before a bit of drama with Babar, who drives two to deep point and decides to return for a third but without the consent of his partner. Sent back, he has to dive, fortunate that the throw from the deep wasn’t better to Foakes. Phew.

“It’s generally understood that Wales and England are a single entity when it comes to cricket viz,” emails John Starbuck. “Glamorgan in the County Championship; it’s quicker to say ‘ECB’ than ‘E&WCB’. The problem is the lack of support throughout the valleys for any more senior level teams. If there were to be an independence movement it would probably have to be promoted really well. Speaking of which, several counties now have a couple of webcams for view, along with links (at least at Trent Bridge) to the local BBC Radio commentary. Follow good examples!”

Yeah, I don’t think it’ll ever happen. It sucks that the acronym ignores Wales and says a fair bit. Agree with your second point; those live streams, linked with radio comms, have been outstanding. Surrey do a super job with this too.

David Willey has the ball in his hand. He’s starting England off from the Cathedral Road End. Fakhar, one of my faves, is on strike. PLAY!

Oh, Jerusalem is playing. I’m not sure about popping that on before a T20 but each to their own. Should be Bread of Heaven in Wales. Anyway. Down the steps they run in their solar red clobber. They are followed by Pakistan’s brilliant openers, Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam – the latter the top-ranked T20 bat in the world.

Ben Duckett’s a great story. As Isa Guha notes on TMS, it’s his first international “since pouring a pint over Jimmy Anderson’s head” during the 2017-18 Ashes/Lions tour.

What japes they were at the (in)famous Avenue Nightclub. Will Macpherson, formerly of the OBO parish, wrote a nightclub review of it during the Perth Ashes Test. We had a nice time.

“Greetings from Perth.” Greetings to you, Keith Cundale. “I hope that Jofra Archer does better for England than he did in the Big Bash at Perth Stadium this year. As a keen Perth Scorchers fan I readily joined in the hoots of derision as the “star bowler” for the Hobart Hurricanes was unceremoniously removed from the attack. Still, I am sure that his enthusiasm will be under control this time.”

Naughty, Keith. Don’t worry about Jofra, he’s a good’un. Because I’m Australian, I keep adding an extra ‘f’ having grown up with so many Joffas at cricket clubs.

Back to Cardiff. Talking at the toss, Eoin Morgan said he wasn’t fussed about Pakistan batting because he would have bowled anyway. Nice when everyone is happy, innit?

Good grief. West Indies are currently 330/0 (after 45) at Malahide against Ireland to begin their ODI series. Campbell is 156 and Hope 158. Eeek.

David Carter adds that Simon Jones is very much Welsh. No debates there. What a bowler. “Career sadly truncated by injury. His dad was pretty useful too, I just about remember seeing him play.”

I know this isn’t the most popular view in the village but I reckon they should have their own international team. Joining Scotland, Ireland and Netherlands as a group of four comparatively small but growing cricket nations in Europe. Of course, this’ll never happen. I mostly believe this because my family are Welsh and my grandfather spent some years up there being a scallywag after the war.

For Pakistan, Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hasnain are on debut too.

Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Haris Sohail, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain.

England have three men on debut. None of them are Phil Salt, so let’s park that storyline. But Jofra Archer and Bens Foakes and Duckett are all turning out in a T20 International for the first time.

James Vince, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Joe Denly, Ben Foakes (wk), David Willey, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer.

XIs as named with you shortly.

“Geraint Jones is from Papua New Guinea,” writes David Carter. Good technical point. But you know what I mean. Jones was also kinda Australian. Options galore.

The (North) Wales connection is strong. Phil Salt, of Sussex, is on international debut today, assuming they pick him at the toss. He’s in for Dawid Malan, who picked up a groin injury against Ireland on Friday. Salt, a right-handed bat, is Welsh. Making him the first England cricketer from there since… gosh, Geraint Jones? Or am I missing someone? If so, let me know in the usual ways.

Also, Shadab Khan. He’s not playing today and it’s a bit of a big deal, I’m afraid to say. The 20-year-old leggie is the real deal, one of the main drivers of Pakistan’s T20 success. But, according to reports during the week, he has been floored with hepatitis, contracted at his dentist. He’s definitely out of this series (both today and the ODIs) and, again according to reports, might not be fit for the World Cup. I interviewed him in Harare last year during the tri-series with Zimbabwe and Australia and he’s a lovely young man. Get well fast.