Barnstorming Bairstow blasts England level

Encouragingly as well for the England management, it is the youngsters who are driving the side forward. Craig Kieswetter was excellent opening the innings, first with the more aggressive Kevin Pietersen and then rebuilding after three wickets had fallen in three consecutive overs. His shot selection was markedly improved from a year ago as, instead of trying to hit over the field every ball, he waited for the right one to smack and ensured he scored off the others. Indeed his dismissal was a surprise as the ball was there for his favourite hit over extra-cover but he picked out the fielder at long-off instead. It mattered little as Jonny Bairstow calmly took over with a superb half-century based on a mixture of powerful hits and constant accumulation. He is a wonderful cricketer and possesses a superb big-match temperament. Most impressive was his intelligence and awareness of the game situation.

Bairstow scored at better than a run a ball, maintaining tempo with a couple of big sixes but also eschewing unnecessary risk. The result was he took England to a total of 150 which was always going to be competitive. Then, with the ball, Steven Finn and Jade Dernbach took a wicket in their opening overs. The best way to keep the runs down is to take wickets and England did that with clever but aggressive bowling by the seamers first up. And, when Umar Akmal started to swing successfully, Finn was aided by Eoin Morgan at backward point clinging on to a very hard hit ball. Catches win matches is a cry from every school cricket field across the world and, despite his troubles with the bat on tour, Morgan certainly contributed to this match with that one catch. With Awais Zia swinging his bat at the other end like a drunken woodchopper, connecting for one massive six but missing about eight more, the Pakistan innings was stalled and the required run-rate increased quickly towards ten an over. That is hard to sustain over anything other than a few overs at most but to do it for 10 takes sustained hitting of boundaries. So, even when Pakistan rallied through Shahid Afridi, Hammad Azam and Umar Gul and the ball seemed to be flying over the boundary every ball, England still had enough of a cushion and the knowledge that, while every ball was a possible boundary, it was also likely to be a wicket and effectively game over.

And that is how it happened. Azzam was caught brilliantly by Jos Buttler, a steepler that went high enough to register on the local radar, Gul top-edged to Kieswetter and finally, with 39 needed off the last two overs, Afridi sliced a big hit high into the air and Morgan took the catch.

Much to celebrate for England before the decider on Monday.