England beat Pakistan by 5 wickets

Cardiff : Hard luck seems to follow the Pakistan cricketers not only outside the field but also within, as England defeated them by 5 wickets in the first T-20 International match on Sunday.

Pakistan had posted 126/4 in the 20 overs, while England in return chased their total successfully as the reached 129/5 in just 17.1 overs.

The 67-run 6th wicket partnership between M.Yardy (35 n.o.) and E.Morgan (38 n.o.) ensured the English a smooth victory at the end.

Morgan topped the British innings, as he hit 6 fours in his innings of 38 runs.

Earlier, the British openers too failed to give their team a good start as Craig Kieswetter got out early by scoring only 6 runs.

His wicket was taken by Shoaib Akhtar.

Paul Collingwood too failed with bat as he scored only 4 before he was bowled by Afridi.

The Pakistani bowlers looked very ordinary with both Shoaib Akhtar and captain Afridi picking 2 wickets each.

Earlier, Pakistan lost their opener Kamran Akmal quickly in the second over of the game itself to Bresnan by scoring only 6.

The rest of the Pakistani batsmen made little contribution with their bat as all of them crossed double figure marks.

Umar Akmal topped the Pakistani batsmen, scoring 35 runs.

Captain Afridi scored 16 runs in 14 balls.

Graeme Swann was the pick of the English bowlers as he took two wickets by giving only 14 runs in his four overs.

Michael Yardy was named the Man of the Match at the end.

With this victory England lead the two match series 1-0.

However, it was interesting to see how Pakistan perform in this match after all the recent controversies the side has been facing.

But in the fields too the side failed to clinch a victory over England.