Pakistan beat England by two wickets with one over to spare in the Cathay Pacific/Standard Chartered Hong Kong Cricket Sixes 2001 being played at Kowloon Cricket Club in Hong Kong, on Saturday.

England won the toss and elected to bat. Pakistan had other ideas though; three brilliant overs did the trick. Abdur Razzaq bowled a brilliant opening over giving away just four runs. Shoaib Malik gave away just six runs off the second over. It got even better with the wily Wasim Akram, he gave away just the one run off his over, which also saw him knock back Blackwell's middle stump with a Yorker. After three overs England were 19/1.

Ben Hollioake and Andrew Flintoff struck a boundary each off the Shahid Afridi, which cost the bowler 18 runs. Azhar Mahmood bowled the final over and he too kept things tight. He gave away a couple of boundaries in the over that cost just 11 runs. Flintoff remained not out on 18 off 16 balls and Hollioake unbeaten on 10 off eight balls. There were 16 extras, which helped England to 48/1 off five overs.

Pakistan too had a tough start; Douglas Brown bowled a brilliant opening over giving away just five runs in taking the valuable wicket of Afridi (1 off 3 balls). Wasim Akram (2 off 4 balls) could only give a simple catch to Hollioake at the fence, off the bowling of Flintoff (1-0-6-1). Pakistan were 13/2 after two overs.

Rashid Latif hit two boundaries and Abdur Razzaq struck two huge sixes off the Hollioake over. Razzaq (13 off 5 balls) was caught by Flintoff off the bowling of Hollioake (1-0-21-1). Latif (14 off 8 balls) was caught by Maynard off the bowling of Mark Ealham. Pakistan raced past the target when Mahmood struck three consecutive fours off Ealham (1-0-16-1).

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