Pakistan VS England T20I: Haris Rauf wins a thriller for Pakistan to level the series 2-2

After all, most T20I series are three-match or at most five-match affairs. Would seven matches of the same opposition not feel like overkill?

However, after Pakistan won an absolute thriller of a fourth T20I, most fans would safely be looking forward to the remainder of the matches.

Not only does the result mean that the series is now level at 2-2, but it proved once again that even the shortest format of the game could produce low-scoring thrillers.

After England won the toss, Pakistan was allowed to bat.  And in truth, their total of 166-4 didn’t inspire much confidence, to begin with.

This is not a full-strength England team, but they are more than capable of blowing the opposition away with the bat. After all, the last two T20Is scored 199 and 215, respectively.

And given that Pakistan had chased down a 200-run target in this venue, it seemed like the English were the favourites coming into the second innings.

The first innings did expose a lot of Pakistan’s shortcomings. The over-dependence on skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan was evident, and both scored the bulk of those 166 runs.

Rizwan top scored with 88, whereas Babar grafted hard for his 36. But their strike rates – 131.34 for Rizwan and 128.57 for Babar – raised a few eyebrows.

Its perhaps understandable that the openers prioritize runs over strike rate given the paltry contributions from the middle order – Shan Masood scored 21 off 19 balls, Khushdil Shah only managed 2, Asif Ali hit two sixes on 13, and Mohammad Nawaz made one.

Yet this approach looked to have failed in this case. But cricket can be a strange game sometimes – and in T20s, all you need is one game-changing performance to turn the match on its head.

That performance came from Haris Rauf, who got three quick wickets in the death overs to set panic among the visitors.

Mohammad Nawaz and Mohammad Hasnain had done well to eat away at the top order. But going into the final two overs, England scored 9 runs. The 17th over had yielded 24 runs.

And when Rauf was smacked for four by Liam Dawson, the match seemed a mere formality. But Rauf removed Dawson and then got Olly Stone off the next ball. Suddenly Pakistan only needed one wicket to pull off an improbable win. England, on the other hand, needed just four runs.

Mohammad Wasim Jr. was tasked with bowling the final over and started things off with a dot ball. The pressure got to England as Reece Topley scrambled hard for a single that never looked on.

He nudged the ball to Shan Masood in the mid-wicket region, but Masood’s throw was accurate, and Pakistan celebrated an unlikely win.

The final three matches will be held in Lahore, and if they’re anything as good as the Karachi leg, then cricket fans are in for a treat.