Minhas's record all-round show powers Pakistan to 87-run rout of England

Pakistan have beaten England by a big margin of 87 runs in the second match of the tri-nation series at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. A half-century with the bat and six wickets with the ball — on a record-touching night for 21-year-old all-rounder Arafat Minhas, the English resistance simply crumbled.

Put in to bat after losing the toss on Tuesday, hosts Pakistan scored 302 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their allotted 50 overs. That total past three hundred laid the foundation of the match, on which the bowlers finished the rest of the job comfortably.

The highest score in Pakistan's innings came from Hasan Nawaz. His innings of 79 runs off 74 balls, the team's best, gave the innings pace through the middle overs. Experienced batter Babar Azam contributed 34 runs.

The most effective contribution of the innings, however, was Minhas's. Scoring 59 runs off 58 balls, he played a major role in taking the team past the three-hundred milestone. His firm batting gave Pakistan a total worth fighting for in front of their opponents.

Chasing a target of 303, England kept losing wickets at regular intervals against the controlled bowling of the Pakistani attack. Under the pressure of the big target, no partnership of the visitors' innings really took shape.

Tom Banton top-scored for England with 57 runs; in his 53-ball innings he tried to build resistance. Ben Duckett made 45 off 46 balls. But with the other batters failing, that effort could not turn into a win.

In the end, England's innings folded for 215 runs in just 38.4 overs. The visitors were bowled out well before completing their 50 overs, and Pakistan sealed victory by a big margin of 87 runs.

Minhas was on fire with the ball. In 8.4 overs, conceding only 40 runs, he claimed 6 wickets. It is his first six-wicket haul in one-day cricket, and in recognition of the performance with both bat and ball, the player-of-the-match award also went to him.

With this match, Minhas has also touched a new milestone. He is the seventh cricketer in ODI history to take six wickets and score a half-century in the same match. Among players from full-member nations, the feat has now been achieved for the fifth time.

In only the fifth match of his international career, Minhas's wicket tally has already reached 14. On debut, this youngster had rattled Australia with five wickets; this time he subdued England with his bowling skill. Such performances in a career of just five matches have brought him to the centre of discussion.

Riding on Minhas's all-round brilliance, Pakistan have sent a clear message of their strength in the tri-nation series with this big win. In the next match of the series, Pakistan and England will meet again on 25 October at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium — where the visitors will face the challenge of avenging this defeat.