England beat Pakistan in low-scoring warm-up

Spin bowlers Danny Briggs and Saeed Ajmal dominated proceedings as England defeated Pakistan by 15 runs in the last of the warm-up matches ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 2012.

Ajmal first bowled a spell of 4-14 to skittle England out for 111, before Briggs bowled his four overs for 3-15 to help stop Pakistan at 96-9 and seal an unlikely victory at the P Sara Oval in Colombo on Wednesday (September 19).

Batting first after winning the toss, England gave a hit to all its batsmen except Michael Lumb, but no one apart from Luke Wright looked the part on the day. Wright scored a 36-ball 38 as none of the other England batsmen could stand up to the left-arm orthodox spin of Raza Hasan (2-16) or pacers Yasir Arafat (2-21) and Mohammad Sami (1-18), leave alone Ajmal.

But even that modest total was too much for Pakistan as Briggs struck thrice to reduce Pakistan to 67-5 by the 13th over. Five Pakistan batsmen reached double figures, but none of them stuck around to get the job done as Pakistan chose to keep Kamran Akmal, the man in form, away till the very end.

Jade Dernbach (3-14) was also impressive as he sent back Shoaib Malik, Abdul Razzaq and Kamran towards the latter half of Pakistan's innings.

England play their first game of the ICC World Twenty20 2012 against Afghanistan on Friday (September 21), while Pakistan plays New Zealand in its opening fixture on Sunday (September 23).