Chris Woakes of England believes that England fell short of the objective while chasing 146 against Pakistan in the fifth T20I because they lost wickets frequently throughout the innings.
In response to Pakistan’s score of 145 on Wednesday in Lahore, England could score 139/7. Pakistan now leads England in the seven-game T20I series, 3-2, after the victory.
Woakes believes that England can still win the series despite the disadvantage.
“We continue to believe that we can win this series. The score might have been quite different, but we are where we are three-two,” he said in an exclusive interview with Geo following the game. “There have been some very tight games, this one was tight, the last one was tough.
When the team showed up on Friday, he said, “We will look to accomplish that and try and get the series even. We have to win the next two to win the series.”
The 33-year-old England player believes that, in terms of Wednesday’s game, England played well to contain Pakistan and that the target might have been chased, but that losing wickets repeatedly cost England the game.
“I think losing wickets consistently throughout the innings probably is what costs us. It wasn’t a great wicket to bat on, the score is probably was about par on that surface, we felt that we restricted them to a decent total which we could go and chase. But when you’re consistently losing wickets throughout the innings, it’s always tricky to get to the total. Moeen got us close but just not quite close enough,” he explained when asked about where he felt England fell short.
However, he praised Pakistani rookie Aamir Jamal, who managed to defend 15 in the final over while only giving up 9.
The England cricketer praised Aamir for his excellent bowling performance against Moeen Ali under pressure.
“Defending a total is never simple, especially since there were so many runs in the last over. So, he deserves all the credit for his bowling to Moeen Ali, who was also in fine form, he remarked.
Chris Woakes expressed his excitement to be playing for England once again after a six-month absence.
“Perhaps I could have batted a little bit better there at the end. However, that’s just how the game works, you know. I’ll hopefully improve from there once I’ve played a few more games, he remarked.
Chris Woakes termed the 7-match series against Pakistan a good opportunity for his side to prepare for the T20 World Cup which is scheduled to be played in Australia next month.
“Obviously the conditions will be very different and you may want to go with a slightly different combination. But I think the good thing about this series is it gets the very good side in Pakistan, the competitive side obviously. And, there’s no better preparation than playing competitive cricket against good teams. So, we all see it as good preparation,” he said when asked about how he sees this 7 match series against Pakistan.
