England seal 2-0 series victory

Pakistan's batsmen floundered against a pumped-up England bowling attack, as they crashed to their lowest Twenty20 total of all time in front of one of the smallest crowds of the summer. After winning the toss on a showery evening in Cardiff, they chose to bat first and were made to regret it, as they were skittled for 89 with eight deliveries of their innings to spare.

Although Pakistan this time batted first of their own volition, their innings started in an uncannily familiar fashion to Sunday's first fixture. A loose first over from Ryan Sidebottom was swatted for 11 useful runs (one fewer than had been the case two days earlier), before Tim Bresnan dismissed Kamran Akmal via a rash pull for the second game running. He struck with his second ball on Sunday, and his fourth today, but at 11 for 1, Pakistan's innings had once again been robbed of its early momentum.
The situation got steadily worse for Pakistan, even though Mohammad Yousuf was given an early let-off on 1 as Eoin Morgan spilled a scything cut at point. He couldn't make the most of his good fortune, however, as Bresnan claimed his second wicket in five balls with a well-directed bouncer that was flapped loosely to Ravi Bopara at deep square leg.
Six balls later, Shahzaib Hasan was also suckered by the short ball, this time courtesy of Stuart Broad, who beat him for pace as he swished airily and snicked the thinnest of edges through to the keeper, Steven Davies. And Broad then made it two in an over, as an anxious Shahid Afridi poked nervously at his first ball before wiping his fourth to Morgan at midwicket. At 22 for 4 after five overs, Pakistan were already dealing with damage limitation.
Mohammad Hafeez's response was to drop anchor as if he was battling to save a Test match. He faced 19 of the next 21 deliveries of the innings, picking off five singles while Umar Akmal ticked impatiently at the other end of the pitch, and it came as little surprise when Umar beat that tally in one blow by mowing Graeme Swann straight back over his head for the first six of the series. He produced an identical blow in Swann's next over, only to fall one delivery later, as Swann gave the ball extra air outside off stump, and a clueless Umar threw back his head to be bowled through the gate for 17.
Abdul Razzaq survived a tight stumping chance on 3 as he corkscrewed his boot back into the crease, but Hafeez's torturous innings was ended by a sharp run-out as Sidebottom shied at the non-striker's end from short fine leg. Two balls and a single later, Fawad Alam's grim series was concluded by a first-ball duck, as he attempted to cut Swann off the back foot and edged instead to the keeper.
Umar Gul produced the shot of the innings when he lifted a Broad slower ball over the fine leg boundary for six, but Razzaq was unable to find his range in a fitful performance. He finally struck his first boundary from his 19th delivery, as Sidebottom offered too much width from a low-toss, only for both men to fall from his next two deliveries. First to go was Razzaq, who top-edged a slower-ball bouncer to Yardy at slip, before Gul pumped a similar delivery to Bopara, running in from deep square leg.
Shoaib Akhtar creamed Bresnan through the covers for a handsome four, but before the over was out, Bresnan had been rewarded for an impressive performance with his third and final wicket of the innings. A well-directed yorker took out the base of middle stump to complete the fine figures of 3.4-0-10-3, and leave England chasing a meagre 90 for victory.
England 1 Craig Kieswetter, 2 Steve Davies (wk), 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Luke Wright, 7 Tim Bresnan, 8 Michael Yardy, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Ryan Sidebottom
Pakistan 1 Shahzaib Hasan, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Fawad Alam, 5 Mohammad Yousuf, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Umar Gul, 10 Saeed Ajmal, 11 Shoaib Akhtar