DUBAI // Adil Rashid has run the full spectrum of a leg-spinner’s lot on this tour of the UAE. He started it with record-breaking worst figures in the opening Test in Abu Dhabi last month.
He enjoyed some timely redemption last night, though, as his bewitching spell spun the second Twenty20 international the way of England.
His four overs in the middle of the Pakistan innings – headlined by a perfect googly to dismiss Sohaib Maqsood – set the tourists on course for a series-clinching three-run win.
A day earlier, he had suffered a match club cricketers back in England term a "TFC". Did not bat, did not bowl, but "thanks for coming" and making up the numbers, anyway.
Given the fact he had contributed nothing to the opening 14-run win, it was perhaps a surprise he even kept his place, as England made four changes to their starting XI.
But Jos Buttler, who was captaining England for the first time with Eoin Morgan rested, trusted his leg-spinner, and that faith was repaid. Two wickets for 18 may not look especially flash, but it was decisive in this match.
It was a night for leg-spinners. Shahid Afridi may have ended on the losing side, but at least he had provided his legion of supporters something to cheer on a weekend of otherwise lean pickings.
Afridi is into his 20th year of international cricket now, and remains the major attraction at most matches in the UAE.
The majority of the 25,000 crowd – or aggregate of 50,000 over the two nights – were here to see him play.
On Thursday night, traffic problems meant the ground took at least 10 overs of the first innings to be full. It emptied far quicker, starting when Afridi was out for a first-ball duck.
After the first-night aberration, he was worth the admission fee second time around, for his bowling exploits first of all. Afridi’s return of three for 15 from his four overs was the difference between England making an insurmountable total and a gettable one.
Their eventual tally of 172 for eight was 12 more than they managed in winning the first match of the series, yet still seemed like it could have been within Pakistan’s compass. James Vince was the top scorer for England, adding 38 to the 41 he had made on debut 24 hours earlier.
After Rashid’s intervention, Pakistan were well behind in the victory pursuit, but Afridi breathed life into their chase with a defiant cameo worth 24 from eight balls.
Chris Woakes, bowling the final over, held his nerve at the last, though, as Anwar Ali and Sohail Tanvir fell just short of dragging their side over the winning line.
pradley@thenational.ae
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