KARACHI: England skipper Moeen Ali has termed the dropped catch of Mohammad Rizwan off Liam Dawson and his own one over which yielded 21 runs the turning points in the second T20I on Thursday.
“We dropped a big catch. I bowled one over. It was a gamble. I did try to take a wicket but obviously it did not work and that’s why Pakistan won the game,” Moeen told a post-match news conference after England were outclassed by a record-breaking unbeaten opening stand from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.
Alex Hales dropped Rizwan off Dawson when he was on 23, a chance which proved costly for England as the man in form then went on to hit 88 not out.
Moeen, an off-spinner, brought himself in the 13th over in which he was hit by Babar Azam for two sixes and also smacked by Rizwan for one six.
“In ten overs I was confident as it was eight something in an over and a couple of wickets could change the things. It was a good game of cricket. Both teams played well. Their batters were outstanding. As a group we batted very well,” Moeen said.
He said that they would come up with plans to take wickets in the coming games. “We will come up with ideas and different ways to get wickets. If you take wickets most of the time you get the wins. We bowled well in the first ten overs and Dawson was fantastic and he bowled four very good overs. There are a lot of positives from today’s game but just at the backend we could not grab,” Moeen said.
Asked whether there was a lack of penetration with the ball, Moeen said: “I don’t think so. We got guys who bowled with 90 miles and that’s what you want really in T20 cricket and I think the guys had enough experience to win the game. Had we taken the catch it would have been different.”
He appreciated the batting of Babar and Rizwan who shared their seventh century partnership in T20I cricket. “They played really well,” Moeen said. “I know they get a lot of criticism about their strike rates but I have never seen an issue with the strike rate. Sometimes the media puts pressure on players when they don’t do well and I think they are the best two in the world. They are so busy in different areas. Rizwan today got off to a flier and Babar took his time a little bit, but then nobody could stop him. They are brilliant players and it was their day,” Moeen said.
He defended his decision to bat first. “It (pitch) looked a lot drier (with a) lot more cracks but even speaking to some other guys they said it’s very hard to read the Karachi pitch.
“I still will back batting first. We batted well. I think we had enough runs and we just could not get wickets and that’s why they crossed it,” said Moeen, who has payed only one game at Karachi in the PSL.
“We all thought that it would spin a bit more and keep low but there was not really any spin. Adil Rashid bowled well but they played very well in my opinion.
“The pitch was very good. It looks like hard to defend in Karachi but also from the first game we saw the wicket and it was not like a Karachi wicket. We saw this was like a normal Karachi wicket. Obviously, we will look at this while going forward,” Moeen said.