A scintillating 200-run partnership between centurion Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan helped Pakistan level their T20I series and end England’s first 10-wicket loss in the format.
England were quite happy after posting 5-199 in Karachi. Captain Moeen Ali scored an unbeaten 55 off 23 balls, but his team was widely panned by the Pakistan openers.
Babar Azam answered questions on his scoring rate with 110 off 66 balls and Rizwan scored an unbeaten 88 with the help of nine sixes and 16 fours.
England would be concerned about the lack of sharpness from their bowling attack, but the two chances they had created against Rizwan were wasted as Alex Hales missed him at 23 and Phil Salt missed the stumpings on 32.
England got off to a good start by winning the toss, with Salt and Hales scoring 42 runs in the first five overs, including a six, as they set the tone for a high-scoring evening at the National Stadium.
Shahnawaz Dahani put a serious dent in his progress in the sixth over by taking two wickets in the same number of balls. Hales, fresh from his 50 return on Tuesday, had his bails cut by an in-cutter on 26, before David Malan was bowled around his legs for a golden duck.
The hat-trick ball was well directed by Dahani, but well defended by Ben Duckett, a rare display of honor in a thumping 22-ball 43.
He displayed his range with some clever scoops over the keeper, caught his reverse sweeps and hit four boundaries in eight balls at a time.
Salt had slowed down so much that his dismissal by Haris Rauf was only a minor blow, but when the duck was bowled in the next over, attempting to flick Mohammad Nawaz to fine leg, it seemed more important.
But England went even harder, with Harry Brooke scoring 31 before a wrongful ramp paid the price and Moeen was in some big hits.
The skipper launched Usman Qadir for successive sixes and ended the innings with two more as he took his team to a substantial score.
Pakistan knew they would rely heavily on their elite opening pair and Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan kept pace with the rate of demand from off, tearing four different bowlers in a chaotic powerplay.
Seamers David Willey, Sam Curran and Luke Wood all took some blows but Liam Dawson was unlucky when he pulled a skier off Rizwan, only to fold it at mid-off before Hales put it down.
Rizwan hit a six off the next ball. Adil Rashid came close to dismissing Hales when his first delivery ripped Rizwan’s outside edge out of the crease, but Salt’s glovework let him down.
After scoring 87 in the first half of the chase, Pakistan still needed 113 in the second half but never looked back as both the batsmen scored half-centuries.
Moeen brought himself forward for the 13th over and went on to eat 21 runs, two big sixes by Babar and another by Rizwan. Two more followed as England banker Rashid, failed to stop the flow.
Babar Azam’s hitting became more and more consistent as he overtook his teammate to reach his second T20I century in just 62 balls. A 17 off Wood’s final over allowed Babar to end things with three balls to spare.