With a mis-hit shot that squirmed past the wicketkeeper and away for four, Sam Curran brought England’s eighth game against Pakistan in little more than a month, and their T20 World Cup preparations, to an appropriately messy conclusion.
Played in an eerie, echoey, empty stadium in Brisbane, an atmosphere reminiscent of the peak Covid sporting hellscape, this was a match of occasionally chaotic running, sometimes hapless fielding and frequently wild hitting, a game of freebies and second chances. But by winning by six wickets, with 26 balls remaining, England extended the positive momentum which built across their recent series against Pakistan and Australia. As Jos Buttler said: “I think everything we wanted to get out of today we did.”
