Phil Salt produced the tastiest of knocks to fire England to a thumping eight wicket victory and set up a winner-takes-all final on Sunday.
The 26-year-old wicket-keeper batsman had struggled to find his best form as Jos Buttler's replacement at the top of the order across the seven match series. But he let all his frustrations out in a powerfully ruthless innings of 88 not out from just 41 balls that contained 13 fours and 3 sixes, and one that even Buttler himself would have been proud of.
A target of 170 was always going to be well within England’s range, but the way that Salt and Alex Hales flew out of the traps made a mockery of a challenge that was reached with 33 balls to spare to level things at 3-3 with one to play.
The pitch certainly appeared to be a little more batter friendly in the second innings with the dew allowing the ball to zip through nicely. But that was the case in the last game too when they made a horlicks of their chase.
This time Salt found his groove, showed just how dangerous he can be when he doesn’t find the fielders on the leg side boundary and why he could yet have a say in the World Cup. “It is nice timing to do it when the series is in the balance,” said Salt.
“So I’m very happy with the knock. It is always a challenge at the top of the order when you feel like you’re playing well but you’re picking out fielders and finding ways to get out. I’m grateful for the backing I’ve got from my teammates and the management.
“It is very clear the way they want me to play. You need competition for places, the best sides have it and that is the same in every sport. Guys trying to put their best foot forward and show how good they are.”
The openers brought 50 up after just three overs and when Hales was caught at short fine leg for 27 Salt just continued in the same vein. He brought up his own fifty from just 19 balls, the third fastest by an Englishman, by which time the result of the match was inevitable.
“I’m very happy,” said skipper Moeen Ali. “The way we batted was outstanding, we almost killed the game off straight away. If you don’t lose wickets you can keep going and they were good shots, not slogging.”
Earlier Pakistan skipper Babar Azam again put on a show with 87 not out to become the fifth man to score 3000 runs in T20 cricket and he equalled Virat Kohli’s record of 81 innings as the fastest to get there.
But with the platform laid at 110-4 and with 33 balls left to do some real damage, Pakistan’s middle order was kept largely quiet by England's trio of left-armers, David Willey, Reece Topley and Sam Curran.
