Babar, Rizwan shines as Pakistan thrashes England by 10 wickets

Pakistan have made a brilliant comeback to level the series as they beat England by 10 wickets in the 2nd T2OI on Thursday. Skipper Babar Azam has silenced the critics in an emphatic style as he scored an exceptional century to level the series against the visitors.

England elected to bat first after winning the toss and had a poor start to their inning as they lost two early wickets inside the powerplay. Phil Salt was then joined by Ben Duckett as they both put up a 53-run partnership for the 3rd wicket before Salt's dismissal in the 12th over.

Duckett was looking good but was dismissed for 43 runs by Mohammad Nawaz in the 13th over. Captain Moeen Ali came out to the middle to join Harry Brook and both started building partnership towards a big total.

Brook played a knock of quick made 31 runs in 19 balls before he was undone by Haris Rauf. Ali on the other hand was playing some exceptional shots all around the park and took the team total past the 150-run mark.

He went on to score the 6th half-century of his T2OI career and added another 39 runs with Sam Curran for the 6th wicket. Ali and Curran remained unbeaten on 55 runs and 10 runs respectively and took the team total to 199/5 in their 20 overs.

Haris Rauf was brilliant with the ball as he took 2 wickets for just 30 runs in his four overs. Shahnawaz Dahani took 2 wickets as well with Mohammad Nawaz getting a single wicket. 

Chasing the target, the hosts completely outplayed the visitors as they chased down the huge total with 3 balls to spare. Both Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan played exceptional innings as Babar scored the 2nd century of his T2OI career whereas Rizwan scored the 18th half-century of his T2OI career.

Pakistan clinched a clinical 10-wicket victory to level up the 7-match T2OI series 1-1. Babar Azam for his magnificent inning was adjudged as player of the match.