Pakistan vs England: Arafat Minhas takes six in 87-run tri-series win

Arafat Minhas scored a half-century and took six wickets as Pakistan beat England by 87 runs in their One-day International tri-series match at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, Dawn reported. “Pak vs Eng” has drawn more than a million searches in Pakistan this week, according to Google Trends.

Scorecard summary

Team	Score	Top performers
Pakistan	302-9 (50 overs)	Hasan Nawaz 79 (74), Arafat Minhas 59 (58)
England	215 all out (38.4 overs)	Tom Banton 57 (53), Ben Duckett 45 (46); Arafat Minhas 6-40

Pakistan won by 87 runs, their second win in two games after beating Sri Lanka by 37 runs in the opening match on Sunday.

Pakistan’s recovery

England chose to field and reduced Pakistan to 133 for five. Hasan Nawaz and Arafat then added 78 off 74 balls for the sixth wicket to rescue the innings.

Hasan hit 79 off 74 balls with five fours and four sixes, and Arafat made 59 off 58 with nine fours, taking Pakistan to 302 for nine.

England’s collapse

England started the chase fast. Tom Banton and Ben Duckett raced to 91 without loss in 14.3 overs, Duckett making 45 off 46 balls with eight fours and Banton 57 off 53 with five fours and two sixes.

Then it fell apart:

• Haris Rauf broke the stand when Duckett mistimed a pull to Fakhar Zaman at deep fine leg.
• Arafat removed Banton with his third ball, caught by Shaheen Shah Afridi at midwicket, then bowled captain Harry Brook for five with a ball that gripped and straightened: 128 for three.
• Naseem Shah bowled Joe Root for 33 with a skidding delivery that kept low.
• Sam Curran (27) top-edged Haris to substitute Ghazi Ghori, and Jordan Cox (18) was trapped lbw by Arafat.
• Arafat then had Jamie Overton caught at long-on, Will Jacks (19) caught at short midwicket, and Adil Rashid lbw first ball.

With England nine down, Arafat fumbled a throw with Gus Atkinson and Sonny Baker stranded at the same end, then gathered it and hit the stumps directly to finish the match.

Arafat’s six wickets came in just 8.4 overs, and England lost their last seven wickets for 50 runs after reaching 165 for three. Brook later called him the standout performer of the match.

Records

The PCB said Arafat’s six for 40 were the third-best ODI bowling figures on Pakistani soil and the best ever at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Pakistan have since climbed to fourth in the ICC ODI rankings.

Brook: “Too circumspect”

“Banton and Ducky set the tone beautifully, but we lost the wickets in clumps and could not put on a partnership and ended up on the wrong side,” England captain Harry Brook said. “We were a bit too much circumspect against the spinners. We could have put them under pressure, I feel.”

What’s next

Pakistan play Sri Lanka on October 25 and England again on October 27, both in Lahore, with the final on October 31. See the full tri-series schedule.