By BV Swagath
In an extremely low scoring affair at the P Sara Oval in Colombo, England prevailed by 15 runs over Pakistan in the final warm-up match of the ICC World T20 2012. It was a bizarrely scheduled warm up match with the main tournament already getting underway! Nevertheless, both England and Pakistan had a feel of the Sri Lankan conditions before they get into some serious cricket in the coming days.
Batting first after winning the toss, England struggled against spin to come up with 111 all out in 19.3 overs. The top scorer for them was no.3 Luke Wright, who made 38 from 36 balls (with 4 fours). Young left-arm Raza Hasan opening the bowling for Pakistan took 2 for 16 in 4 overs. Saeed Ajmal as usual dominated the opposition batsmen, this time with his 4 for 14 in 4 overs.
In reply, Pakistan struggled to end with a shocking 96 for 9 in the allotted 20 overs! The top score of the innings came from Asad Shafiq, who made a run-a-ball 20. Left-arm spinner Danny Briggs opening the bowling for England came up with figures of 4-1-15-3. Fast bowler Jade Dernbach with all his variations took 3 for 14 in 4 overs while Skipper Stuart Broad was too good for his 4-1-12-2. With this the defending World T20 Champions England have won both their warm up matches.