The first T20I between England and Pakistan will be played at Cardiff on Sunday September 5. The game will begin at 1430 hours GMT (8.00 pm IST) and you can watch the England-Pakistan T20I live on Star Cricket if you are in India and on Sky Sports if you are in UK. You can also watch the highlights of the England-Pakistan T20I on Star Cricket.
The last Test match of the series between England and Pakistan was played at the Lord’s, that ended on August 29, and a lot has transpired since then. It swerved from the series being in the danger of being cancelled to allowing all the cricketers to feature in the series, before the middle-ground of the three tainted players in match-fixing, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir and Salman Butt, being dropped allowed it to go on with a tad less controversy.
Having said that, the backdrop in which this England-Pakistan T20I will be played at Cardiff may make for interesting viewing. The fans may just be more interested in watching the sub-plots within the main war – the extras, the dropped catches, the missed stumpings and run-outs could all assume a different meaning. Especially if they come from the Pakistani stable.
England goes into the game with a minor – as compared to the Pakistani one – controversy of their own. Kevin Pietersen, who was dropped from both the squads, the ODIs and the T20Is, twittered on his account, “Done for rest of summer!! Man of the World Cup T20 and dropped from the T20 side too. Its a f**k up!!”, that seems to have ruffled a few feathers. He was quick to delete the post and apologise, but the last one heard, he was expected to have disciplinary taken on him
Live Scorecard and Commentary, England v Pakistan T20I, Cardiff
Track Tale:
The England-Pakistan T20I will be played at Cardiff, where no other T20I has been played so far. The Sophia Gardens at Cardiff is more famous for the ODIs that it has hosted, and had made its debut while hosting a Test match against Australia last year. The pitch should be good and hard and assist batting, and 160 should be a good total.
England does not have a great record at Cardiff, having won only one of the nine games that have been played there.
Team News:
Interestingly, both teams go into the series with two of the smallest possible squads. England has named a 12-member squad for the series, whereas Pakistan’s decision to ‘rest’ the trio of Butt, Amir and Asif has meant that they are left with only 13 members in the squad. Pakistan’s reinforcements will not arrive before the start of the ODI series.
England’s playing eleven almost picks itself. Except for a choice of any two bowlers out of Tim Bresnan, Ryan Sidebottom and Michael Yardy, the rest of the side is a surety. One gets the sense that the batting is a tad under-cooked the way it is currently, but that is because Steven Davies is an unknown quantity. Ravi Bopara gets another chance to open the innings with Craig Kieswetter, who will play as a pure batsman. Paul Collingwood leads the side, and will see Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright in the middle-order.
Pakistan will be relieved to have won their warm-up game against Somerset after Zander de Bruyn almost took it away from them. However, Shahzaib Hasan’s century and Fawad Alam’s 95 were two of the positives to take away from the game for a side which has struggled for its batting in the recent times. Both should be certainties for the T20I game at Cardiff, along with Umar Akmal, Kamran Akmal, Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Yousuf.
The bowling will be led by Shoaib Akhtar and have Umar Gul and Wahab Riaz supporting him, and Saeed Ajmal and Abdul Razzaq backing the trio.
England v Pakistan Live
You can watch the live streaming of the first T20I between England and Pakistan on September 5, 2010 at Cardiff on the official Star Cricket website.
You can also watch the first T20I between England and Pakistan on September 5, 2010 at Cardiff on Ten Sports.
You can follow the first T20I between England and Pakistan on September 5, 2010 at Cardiff here.
