England v Pakistan: first Twenty20 – live!

10th over: England 79-2 (Banton 49, Morgan 4) Morgan reverses Shadab over point for four – what a shot first ball! – to complete the successful over for Pakistan. Well, at least that’s what you normally would say after a wicket. In practice, this was anything but for the visitors, with the spinner lofted over midwicket twice in a row to begin, for two big sixes. He’s shifted gears nicely since the power play ended.

“Great list from Vice,” replies Damian Clarke. “Thanks for the link. And wow, No. 20 Mumm-Ra. Never come across anyone else who’s even heard of them. Saw them with both my daughters back in the day at the De La Warr in their hometown of Bexhill. Bloody wonderful stuff.” Speaking of music, now I can hear something at Old Trafford, after Banton’s second six – have a blessed bit of Babybird.

Two sixes on the trot to Banton then Malan is run out! Wanting a piece of the action, he ran despite the fact that the ball went straight to Hafeez at backward point. The young man was right to send him back and he was run out by half a pitch lengh.

9th over: England 61-1 (Banton 36, Malan 22) Banton gets Rauf away fine for four as he starts to find a bit of timing. And Malan gets in on the party too, slamming a lovely cover drive for four to finish. He’s struck that so well. Adding runs from four other deliveries in the over, that makes 13 off it – England’s best so far.

8th over: England 48-1 (Banton 28, Malan 17) Shadab’s on and Banton’s well up for that, immediately slogging him for six! I get the feeling he really needed that, the young man. Shadab is onto his preferred line, well outside off, immediately after that with his flat legbreaks, just two dots and three singles following the big hit.

7th over: England 40-1 (Banton 20, Malan 16) Haris Rauf, the breakout star of the Big Bash League last Australian summer after playing grade cricket over there to begin the season, is into the attack with his right-arm wheels. It doesn’t take long before launching into a big lbw appeal! Rizwan liked the shout from behind the stumps, full and quick at Malan from over the wicket. It looked to pitch outside leg, though? DRS confirms the not out decision because there is an inside edge, so we don’t make it to ball-tracking. He’s up to 90mph by the end of the over neither England batsmen can do any better than miscuing to the sweepers. Six from it.

“Good evening Adam.” Hello, Damian Clarke. “Like you, I hadn’t noticed the music between overs on TMS until Mr Starbuck drew attention to it. Now that I have, gosh, the selection is utter toilet, isn’t it?” New audience, and all that? I came very close to programming the T20 playlist for Surrey a couple of seasons ago; I must return to that at some stage. I’ve said before that it’s my destiny is to be a cricket ground DJ.

6th over: England 34-1 (Banton 17, Malan 15) Saliva on the ball between overs, is it? I’ve been surprised how little of that we had in the Tests given how it really is second nature after a while. It looks like Pakistan self-reported before the ball was cleaned by the umpires. It’s Amir again, who is tough to get away when banging it into the pitch after ripping his fingers down the seam but Malan is savvy enough to get bat on a pull shot for two after getting into an awkward position. Can Banton get one away before the power play ends? He does, a four through midwicket. It wasn’t away from the catcher on the circle and came off the bottom of the bat, but a boundary is a boundary. I heard the song played after the boundary, John, but I can’t account for it. I’ve been busy with my Landfill Indie playlist after the Vice piece yesterday. I feel so very lucky that my 20s married up with this era.

5th over: England 25-1 (Banton 11, Malan 12) Shaheen follows Imad, changing to the Statham End. And there’s England’s second boundary, pulled away by Malan off his tummy, into the gap behing square. Neatly struck. But just two singles from the four remaining opportunities, making six from it. One over left with the field up.

John Starbuck is upset about my discussion of the Welsh connection with bat v ball earlier on. Sorry, John. He’s also angry at TMS for playing the ground noise between overs. “And if we’ve got to hear it, your music appreciation thoughts.” It’s been white noise to me but I’ll pay attention over the next couple of overs and assess.

4th over: England 19-1 (Banton 10, Malan 7) Shaheen wants to go again but he’s sent away: it’s Mohammad Amir’s turn. Banton takes a couple of balls to find the gap, getting one down the ground, Malan then turning a further two to midwicket. The only further single he gets isn’t without risk, a clip landing about five metres away from the man at deep backward square. This is Pakistan’s power play so far.

3rd over: England 15-1 (Banton 9, Malan 4) Imad to Malan, can anybody hear Bread of Heaven playing in the background? Or is that just me? The No3 takes one then Banton, who miscues his sweep, a top edges clearing short-fine leg – it runs away for three. Malan again, who reverse sweeps a careful single – can you imagine writing that 20 years ago? Banton adds another down the ground before Malan finishes with a tuck out to the sweeper at deep midwicket. Good running, they take two.

2nd over: England 7-1 (Banton 5, Malan 0) Shaheen Shah Afridi, be still my beating heart. I was there at his T20 International debut in Harare two years ago and asked him about how he felt about the whole experience. He replied, earnestly, that he had a dream that he would dismiss Finch and Maxwell to start off. Of course, he did. What a gem. Starting here today, he beats Banton outside the off-stump, squaring him up just a tad. Lovely. As is the bouncer, the opener out of the way. He gives him something to tuck away later in the over on the pads and the opener clips it away with ease given the man at fine leg is inside the circle. Dropped catch to finish! A slip is in for just that but Iftikhar has put it down. An easy chance, too.

1st over: England 3-1 (Banton 1, Malan 0) Malan has one delivery to deal with from the Welsh-born tweaker (that’ll be the only time I mention it, promise) and pushes to the man on the cover circle. A wonderful start for Pakistan.

How about that! Bairstow used his feet to open up the offside but ended up chipping a low catch back to the left-arm spinner, who made no mistake.

The players are on the field. Imad Wasim to Tom Banton. PLAY!

Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about Haider Ali’s omission. That’s a shame. The 19-year-old has a strike-rate of 148 in just 15 T20s. I’m sure we’ll see him during the series.

Eoin Morgan wants to play both of the next T20 World Cups. That was a good interview with Nick Knight. He’s certainly not ruling himself out from making the next ODI World Cup in three years from now, either. As he said in the chat, his statistical output in T20 cricket has never been better, so why would he be looking to give it away? Fair point. And despite being around forever, he’s only 33, after all.

Other important cricket this weekend. Read Raf Nicholson’s preview of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. A brand new competition with brand new teams. A big step forward in terms of the competition and the remuneration for domestic players.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi.

And Rizwan also gets the nod ahead of Sarfraz behind the stumps. I like that a lot.

England: Tom Banton, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Lewis Gregory, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood.

And for Pakistan, they have named Haris Raul in their team – the young PSL and BBL firebrand – instead of Wahab Riaz. That’s a big call. Full XI shortly.

Eoin Morgan says they would have bowled too. He notes that this series is about development as much as winning with their Test players unavailable. David Willey and Joe Denly are the players who have missed out on the XI for the hosts.

Pakistan are bowling, citing the conditions. Teams shortly.

Ollie Pope is out for four months. This is the big non-game related news coming out of the England camp this afternoon. His left shoulder (yes, the one that he had the operation on last summer) was dislocated again when fielding on Monday. Urgh!