Cricket: Pakistan has last laugh against England in last-ball thriller

Pakistan defeated England by five runs in a thrilling third Twenty20 international at the Emirates OId Trafford in Manchester. As a result, the three-match series is now level at 1-1. The first game was abandoned due to rain.

While batting first, Pakistan posted a competitive total of 190/4. England's start to the chase didn't go according to plan, as the hosts kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

In the end, England needed 12 runs from the final two balls. Tom Curran hit the penultimate delivery for an over-boundary. This meant that the hosts needed six in the last ball to win, but Haris Rauf's perfect yorker outside the off-stump beat Curran and the visitors won the game.

Earlier in the innings, England was four wickets down for 69 before Moeen Ali scored a 33-ball 61 to arouse some hope for the hosts.

When Ali was dismissed, England still needed 17 runs with eight balls to spare. Pakistan pacer Wahab Riaz bowled a brilliant 19th over, in which he conceded just three runs while running out Chris Jordan.

Curran and Adil Rashid were on the crease when they needed to score 17 from the final over. The target was hard to reach with no specialist batsmen left in the middle. But still, Curran tried his best. However, in the end, the hosts could not succeed.

During Pakistan's innings, their veteran batsman Mohammad Hafeez smashed 86 runs from 52 balls. On the other hand, the 19-year-old debutant Haider Ali hit a 33-ball 54. In the process, he became the first Pakistani cricketer to score a half-century in his T20 debut match.

Meanwhile, Tuesday's defeat ended England's run of five consecutive T20 series wins as Pakistan clinched the first victory of their recently concluded tour of England.

According to BBC, at the end of the match, England captain Eoin Morgan said, "I think there's a lot of positives. Two days ago was a massive win for us. The biggest positive today was the marked improvement from our bowlers. They did a great job. With the bat, there's still positives. It's disappointing to lose but you learn more about every player in pressure situations."

England will now play against Australia in a three-match T20 series, starting on Friday, followed by a three-match one-day international series.