Pakistan vs England – 7th T20 International Preview & Prediction
THE FACTS
When is Pakistan vs England taking place? Sunday, October 2nd, 2022 – 15:30 (UK)
Where is Pakistan vs England taking place? Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
What is the expected weather for Pakistan vs England? 29-31c dry with clear skies and light winds
What channel is Pakistan vs England on? The match will be televised live on Sky Sports in the UK
Where can I stream Pakistan vs England? Sky Sports subscribers will be able to stream the match live via the Sky Go app
LAST MEETING
England beat Pakistan by eight wickets
THE LOWDOWN
PAKISTAN
- After a number of excellent performances, the Pakistan bowling attack were dominated across the penultimate T20i of this enthralling series, leading to a rare loss for the hosts defending a target.
- Yet again their score batting first was underpinned by one of their star openers, this time Babar Azam and whilst Iftikhar Ahmed provided valuable support, question marks continue to remain over their lower order depth.
ENGLAND
- It may have taken England time to adapt to conditions in Lahore, but their top order batters were on song this past Friday, comfortably chasing down 170 in just 14.3 overs for the loss of only two wickets.
- After the tourists’ battery of left-arm pacemen did the damage with the ball, Phil Salt went berserk with the bat, smoking 88 not out in just 41 balls to ice the chase in no time at all and should England get off to as good a start with the willow as they did in the last game, then whether they bat first or second, it will be hard for Pakistan to keep them shackled.
THE PREDICTION
This series deserved a deciding match seven and that’s exactly what we’ve got here at the Gaddafi Stadium. Bilateral cricket needed an absorbing end-to-end T20 series between two high quality nations at a time when franchise T20 cricket has never been so prevalent and we’ve certainly had it between Pakistan and England. The expectation is that this final encounter will be extremely close as Pakistan come out of the traps strongly in a bid to erase memories of their poor performance last time out. The inconsistency of the hosts does make them hard to predict, but England themselves have had their struggles across the past six T20i’s. It’s hard to escape that nagging feeling however, that Pakistan are overly reliant on at least one of their two openers playing a big innings to keep them competitive and that could come back to bite them. Consider backing England to come out victorious in this decider, although to be brutally honest it really could go either way.
