England level T20 series against Pakistan as spinners wreak havoc at Headingley | Cricket News

England defeated Pakistan by 45 runs in the second T20 at Emerald Headingley to tie the series of three games; Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Matt Parkinson shine with the ball after the 33-ball half-century of stand-in skipper Jos Buttler; watch the decisive third T20 Tuesday from 6pm on Sky Sports Cricket

England tied the T20 series with Pakistan with a 45-point win as their spinners came to the fore at Emerald Headingley.

After putting the tourists on 201 to win, Adil Rashid (2-30), Moeen Ali (2-32) and Matt Parkinson (1-25) split five wickets between them through the middle overs to give Pakistan’s chase snatches and despite some brief lower order resistance, they finished at 155-9.

Jos Buttler (59 from 39 balls) returned to the side as captain, with Eoin Morgan resting, leading the England striker with his 14th T20I fifty, splitting a 67-run tie with Moeen (36 from 16) and a partnership of 52 with Liam Livingstone (38 out of 23), who followed up his stunning century at Trent Bridge by clearing The Emerald Stand with a massive six.

England’s win brings the series to 1-1 and provides a tantalizing decider at Emirates Old Trafford.

England looked set for a flying start as Jason Roy threw the second ball of the innings over the legside and into the Western Terrace, but Imad Wasim (2-37) retaliated a few balls later, with the opener caught on back point before doing Dawid Malan (1) in his next over.

Thrown together at 18-2, Buttler and Moeen soon had the hosts in the right direction, Buttler rammed into Mohammad Hasnain for six before Moeen got stuck in Haris Rauf (2-48) as 38 runs came from the last two overs of the power play.

The fifty stands came from 24 balls, but Moeen’s striking knock was ended by Hasnain in the eighth when the southpaw tried to punch over the top and was caught halfway through.

Livingstone, coming in after a record-breaking knock in the series opener, came in and soon found his reach, nailing Rauf long for a six – and that was just the beginning as he advanced and launched Imad for a long time a mighty six.

Buttler put forth his half-century of 33 balls, but left in the 14th after beating Hasnain (3-51) halfway through.

Jonny Bairstow (13), fell back to number 6 while England gave others a shot at the order, came and went quickly but Livingstone shot and stunned the packed house in Leeds with possibly the biggest six this famously old ground has ever seen; the sailed back over Rauf’s head and kept going, across the three-tier grandstand and onto the rugby field beyond.

He seemed to be looking for more, but a mix-up with Tom Curran saw him come out in the 16th to wipe out England’s hopes of a score well over 200.

However, they managed to get to that point before the ever-impressive Shaheen Shah Afridi (1-28) pitched Parkinson to end the innings with a ball left in the 20th.

The visitors started off well again via Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and the hosts might have feared the worst when the pair brought up their fiftieth partnership in the sixth over, but Saqib Mahmood got them on the board when he caught Babar (22) on cover later in the same over.

Then it was over to the spinners. Rashid had Sohaib Maqsood (15) stumped by Buttler, then produced a brilliant catch with one hand from his own bowling in his next left to take out Rizwan (37 of 29).

Parkinson caused trouble on the other hand while it was Moeen who was brought in to replace Rashid who may have produced the match-clinching over for having Mohammad Hafeez (10) caught in the deep end before bowling Fakhar Zaman (8) with a ripper as the left-hander advanced.

It took until the last ball of his four overs, but Parkinson finally got his well-deserved wicket as Azam Khan (1) ran past a good flying leggie to give Buttler the simplest stumpings.

Shadab Khan (36 no of 22) and Imad (20 of 13) were at least able to narrow the margin of defeat, but the latter went out to Curran (1-22).

Mahmood (3-33) helped himself a few wickets later, but the focus now shifts to Manchester and a winner-takes-all-clash on Tuesday.

Watch the third T20 international between England and Pakistan live on Sky Sports Cricket from 6pm on Tuesday.