13:14
3rd over: Pakistan 27-1 (Babar 17, Haider 9) Three fours on the spin for Babar, one straight, the next through midwicket, and the third touched very fine beyond third man. The third shot was particularly lovely, but he gets a bit much on an attempt to repeat it and it goes to the fielder. Still, 15 off the over.
Mazher Arshad
(@MazherArshad)Haider and Babar batting together. That’s how they drive ? pic.twitter.com/yzyVYfWFWr
13:09
2nd over: Pakistan 12-1 (Babar 2, Haider 8) Haider Ali comes in, hits his first delivery for one and then smears his second over long-on for a huge six!
The CricViz Analyst
(@cricvizanalyst)That was the second time this year that Moeen Ali has dismissed Fakhar Zaman with the first ball he bowled to him in a T20 innings. First instance was in the PSL for Multan Sultans v Lahore Qalandars. #EngvPak
13:06
WICKET! Fakhar b Moeen 1 (Pakistan 2-1)
Fakhar Zaman’s hapless and very brief innings comes to an end as he completely misjudges Moeen’s first delivery and loses a couple of stumps!

Fakhar Zaman of Pakistan is bowled by Moeen Al as England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow looks on. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Updated
13:04
1st over: Pakistan 2-0 (Babar 1, Fakhar 1) A fine opening over, which could have been better rewarded. Babar takes three balls to get off the mark, and then Fakhar very nearly chops his first ball into his stumps only for it to bounce wide of leg, and gets a leading edge to the second, which floats wide of the bowler. “If it really is dry (for Manchester) then we can expect to see wickets falling only when the batsmen make their own mistakes, rather than being winkled out,” suggests John Starbuck. “Not much of a prospect for the bowlers, so any successes ought to be worth double.”
12:59
The players are out! Saqib Mahmood has the ball in his hands. Let’s rock!
12:40
Babar Azam admits that he too would have chosen to bowl. Pakistan make three changes, with Haider Ali, a big-hitting 19-year-old debutant, the wicketkeeper Sarfaraz Ahmed and Wahab Riaz coming in.
12:38
England win the toss and will chase
“It looks a little bit drier than the first game that we played but it still looks good,” declares Eoin Morgan, who picks an unchanged side. “There is no hiding place in T20 cricket, it can be brutal.”

England captain Eoin Morgan performs the toss watched by Pakistan captain Babar Azam and filmed by the Sky robot. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Pool/Getty Images
Updated
12:25
Hello world!
After three Tests and two T20s, one rained out, Pakistan go into the last match of their tour in search of a first win, while Babar Azam – officially the world’s top-ranked T20 batsman, mind you – comes to terms with being described as “a lost cow” by Shoaib Akhtar in the wake of the record-bending defeat to England on Sunday. “He is out there, not knowing what to do,” blasted Akhtar of his compatriot’s captaincy in that game, which may well fire up the 25-year-old, unless of course he’s ignored it completely as the wild flailings of an ex-player desperate to drive traffic to his YouTube channel.
England meanwhile have the first game of a new series against Australia to look forward to on Friday and will look to go into it without a hangover either literal (it’s Dawid Malan’s 33rd birthday on Thursday, after all) or metaphorical. The birthday boy, who averages 54.60 across his 12 international ODI innings so far, is one of the players hoping to cement his place in the team with a big knock tonight.
There is a 2% chance of precipitation in Manchester this evening, while anything even tiptoeing towards the neighbourhood of vaguely approaching Sunday’s wild pyrotechnics (394 runs in 39.1 overs at 1.68 runs a ball) will do very nicely, thankyou.
Anyway, and most importantly, hello everybody, and welcome!