Pakistan Beat England by 87 Runs — Arafat Minhas Makes 59, Takes 6 for 40 and Runs Out the Last Man

There was a moment in the 19th over at Rawalpindi when this match belonged to England. Pakistan were 81 for 4, Babar Azam had been bowled by Will Jacks, Salman Agha had swept a full toss to fine leg, and Harry Brook's decision to bowl first looked sound. By the end of the evening Pakistan had won by 87 runs, and nearly every turn in between had passed through one man.

Arafat Minhas came in at 133 for 5, made 59 from 58 balls, then took 6 for 40 with his left-arm spin and finished the match with a direct-hit run-out. ESPNcricinfo noted he is only the third Pakistani to score a fifty and take a five-for in the same ODI. England helped him along by missing him three times. That is the honest version of the day: a brilliant all-round performance, and a fielding side that gave it room to happen.

The start was poor. Fakhar Zaman clipped the first ball of the match, from Gus Atkinson, straight to Joe Root at midwicket. Saim Ayub was hurried by a Sonny Baker short ball and caught at backward square leg, and Pakistan were 31 for 2 in the sixth over. Babar Azam struggled against Jacks's off-spin, beaten on the outside edge repeatedly, and was bowled for 34 working across the line off the back foot. Salman Agha, who made 107 against Sri Lanka two days earlier, fell for 16 sweeping Adil Rashid. At drinks Pakistan were 64 for 3.

Hasan Nawaz changed the mood with his first ball, a six off Rashid back down the ground. He added 52 with the 19-year-old Saad Baig until Atkinson bounced Baig out, and then 78 with Minhas. Nawaz was dropped on 28 by Atkinson at backward square leg off Jacks, an easy chance, and went on to 79 from 74 balls with four sixes, his fifty coming from 46. Jamie Overton finally bowled him with an 87mph yorker after a run of short balls.

Then came the acceleration. Minhas and Faheem Ashraf added 72 from 49 balls. Minhas was missed twice in consecutive balls off Sam Curran, a top edge on 42 that bounced out of Jordan Cox's one hand and a botched relay on the long-on boundary on 44, after an earlier miss on 12. He reached fifty from 53 balls with a cover drive off Baker. The last ten overs brought 91 runs, and Haris Rauf muscled the final ball through midwicket to take Pakistan to 302.

For 15 overs the chase looked comfortable. Tom Banton survived several plays-and-misses against Shaheen Shah Afridi and then took 18 off Naseem Shah's fourth over, including sixes over fine leg and midwicket. Ben Duckett hit eight fours in his 45. The opening stand was 91 when Rauf bounced Duckett out.

The trouble was that every one of England's top five got a start and none went on. Banton pulled a short ball from Minhas to midwicket for 57. Brook was bowled for 5 by one that pitched on middle and turned past his back-foot defence to hit off stump. With Minhas and Saim Ayub bowling in tandem, England went 48 balls without a boundary until Curran dragged Ayub into the stands. Root was bowled by Naseem for 33 and Curran caught at deep square off Rauf for 27, leaving 127 needed from 111 balls.

The lower order never looked like getting them. Cox was lbw to Minhas, Overton holed out, Jacks was caught at midwicket and Rashid was lbw first ball. Minhas missed his hat-trick, but when Atkinson and Baker mixed up a single, he ran Atkinson out with a direct hit. England lost their last six wickets for 50. Over the whole match, the dropped catches cost them more than the batting did.

Brook bowled first because he expected dew to help England in the second innings. It didn't play out that way. The pitch offered seamers bounce for the short ball, which accounted for Ayub, Baig and Duckett, and enough turn for the spinners to matter. Jacks found only modest turn early, but he was hard to score off. Later Minhas found enough grip to beat Brook's defence. On this surface 302 was a good total, but not an unreachable one, and England's 91-run opening stand proved that.

It is rare for one player to shape both halves of an ODI this completely. With the bat, Minhas came in with the innings needing a partner for Nawaz and left with Pakistan past 280, having hit nine fours and no sixes. That was a fifty built on placement rather than power. With the ball, he took 6 for 40 in 8.4 overs, a career-best and his second five-wicket haul in ODIs. His wickets were Banton, Brook, Cox, Overton, Jacks and Rashid, and he added the run-out of Atkinson. He was involved in seven of England's ten dismissals.

He rode his luck with the bat, and he would admit it. But by the end of the evening, when Atkinson was lying face down in the dirt at the non-striker's end, you could see why the left-arm spinner had become the story of the night.

Our preview called Pakistan "narrow favourites", so we got the winner right, though the margin was wider than narrow. Most of the detail was wrong. We expected Shaheen Afridi with the new ball to decide the match, and he went wicketless in seven overs. We named Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, Phil Salt and Jofra Archer as key figures, and none of them played. We expected Adil Rashid to keep the scoring down in the middle overs, but he went for 55 in eight. We wrote that a strong batting side could chase anything, and England's openers came close to proving it, before they collapsed. We also said dew was unlikely in a 10:00 AM start. The match actually started in the afternoon, and Brook bowled first because he was expecting dew. The player who decided the match, Arafat Minhas, wasn't mentioned in our preview at all.

Pakistan have won two games from two, after beating Sri Lanka by 37 runs on Sunday. England play Sri Lanka on October 22, and they need to win. Brook's side came into this match with six wins from their previous nine ODIs. Their batting did reasonably well here, so the fielding is the area most likely to concern McCullum's staff before Thursday.