England just destroyed Pakistan to clinch their 7-match T20i cricket series

Here’s how to watch the ENG vs PAK decider on a live stream. England vs Pakistan in the seventh T20i is on NOW and England have completed their innings and Babar and Rizwan are out there now. It does not look good for Pakistan at this point.

This game saw an almost unchanged line-up for England, except that Woakes came in for Gleeson. Mark Wood is presumably being saved for the World Cup in 3 weeks. Hasnain, Haris Rauf and Rizwan came in for Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani and Aamer Jamal.

Pakistan captain Babar won the toss and opted to field first, although they have won a couple of great victories batting first in this series. And also been absolutely slaughtered in a match where they invited England to bat first. Which turned out to be what happened today as well.

England came out swinging as usual, reaching 57/2 by the end of the power play (6 overs). Openers Hales and Salt scored rapidly. They are not very pretty to watch, but you can't argue with the speed of scoring. Once they'd got themselves out, there was a much more enjoyable partnership between the elegantly muscular Dawid Malan and the excitingly improvisatory Ben Duckett, ended at 30 by an excellent stumping by Rizwan.

Pakistan were not helped by the fact that captain Babar grassed a couple of sitters in this innings – he'll have been hoping to make up for that when he batted but sadly that was not to be on this occasion. Wasim also put down a catch, but at least that was a ball that went so high, it practically came down with snow on it, and that is not easy under floodlights.

England eventually totalled 209/3 with Malan finishing 78no at a strike rate just shy of 166 and Brook 46no at 158. The pair put on 108 off just 61 deliveries. This was already a very-probably-match-winning position. Pakistan needed to pull off by far the biggest run chase in the history of the Lahore Gaddafi Stadium to win.

What followed was a bit embarrassing. Babar Azam and Rizwan were both gone after two overs, leaving PAK reeling on 11/2. Khudishil and Shan Masood mystifyingly opted for batting practice rather than making any serious attempt to win the match. Maybe they just aren't good enough. PAK finally brought up their 100 after a mere 15 overs and eventually finished on 142/6 – a 67-run thrashing.

It's been a bit crap from Pakistan, to be frank, but that takes nothing away from a stunning England effort with the bat, and a very efficient one with the ball. Realistically, PAK were never going to chase down 110 once Babar and Rizwan were gone within the first two overs, but they could at least have tried.

What time is England vs Pakistan in the 7th and final T20 cricket international?

UPDATE: the game is on now. 

The next match in this superbly entertaining series takes place Sunday October 2 and comes to you live and direct from Lahore's Gadaffi Stadium. The ENG vs PAK decider is on at 7.30pm PKT, 3:30pm BST, 10.30am ET, 7.30am PT, 4.30pm SAST, 8pm IST, 12.30am AEST, 2.30am NZST. And here is how you can watch it…

Here's how to watch the Pakistan vs England match on a live stream. If you're out of the country and can't access your preferred domestic broadcaster, you can use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions.  There are some handy free options, with commentary in Urdu, or you can go for the full, luxury Sky treatment and get the dulcet tones of David Gower, and the not-quite-so-dulcet tones of Mark 'Butch' Butcher and Nasser 'Nass' Hussain.

How to watch Pakistan vs England on a live stream for FREE

Pakistan vs England is available to watch on PTV which is like Pakistan's answer to the BBC. This is one of two free options available in Pakistan, not counting the numerous free streams on YouTube. As far as I can see, you won't even need a VPN, but if it turns out you do, you can read all about that below. English speakers may find they don't get much out of the commentary, which is presumably in Urdu – it's probably still more insightful than Kevin Pietersen, though.

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How to watch Pakistan vs England on a different free live stream

PTV Sports not playing ball for you? Luckily, it is not the only Pakistan-based free streaming option for this series. You can also catch the action on ARY ZAP, whatever that is. They have live streams of all the T20i matches against England and you can take a look at this one right here.

How to watch Pakistan vs England in the UK

Needless to say, this match is on Sky Sports, which means it's also available via its NOW streaming service. One of the regular Sky Now offers has suddenly kicked in with immaculate timing and now a mere £25 will buy you access to the final and Sky Sports in general for a month. You also get a free month of 'Boost' which means visuals are in full and beautiful HD rather than the usual, slightly iffy 720p. 

• Get a month of full HD Sky Sports for £25 per month for six months

How to watch Pakistan vs England in India

Sony Sports Network is the lucky broadcaster for this series, and its Sony Liv app is hence the streaming option, from just Rs 299 per month. Indian cricket fans worldwide can watch with Hindi commentary by using the same app and a VPN. 

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How to watch Pakistan vs England in the USA

It always slightly blows my mind that America has a streaming service just for cricket, and that it is called Willow TV. Why can't we have that in the UK? You can watch via cable, or use Sling TV's venerable streaming/cord-cutting service. Via Sling, Willow TV is $5 per month, but new sign-ups can bag it as part of a multi-channel bundle, with a 50% discount for the first month.

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How to watch Pakistan vs England in Australia

Fox Cricket and the Foxtel streaming service should be Aussies' first port of call. You can also watch via a one-week free trial of Kayo Sports, if you haven't done that already. Otherwise, you could opt for Kayo Basic, which is $27.50 per month.

How to watch England vs Pakistan in New Zealand

As in the UK, the official broadcaster of choice is Sky Sports, with NOW and Sky Go being your streaming options.

How to watch Pakistan vs England if you're abroad

If you're out of the country on holiday or business, you can still get access to a live stream - simply use the best VPN around to get past those geo-restrictions. A streaming VPN is a very handy thing, as it means you can hop on a server within the US, UK or anywhere else  and it will switch your IP address to make it appear as if you're browsing right from the comfort of your own home.

• VPN - standing for virtual private network - offers security and anonymity as you browse online, using set protocols to encrypt your data and make it unreadable to outsiders.
• As a part of that, you can also switch your IP address, which identifies your location.
• Most VPNs offer a list of locations where its servers are based to join. Connecting to them switches your IP to appear as if you're browsing from that country/city. In turn, you can then access content locked to that country.
• When it comes to finding a VPN, you should make sure you find the best one that's suitable for your chosen device, with VPN providers offering compatibility for a ton of devices, including VPN for Mac, and even a range of fairly nifty free VPNs.
• Once you've made the decision for the most suitable VPN for your device and your means for using a VPN, sign-up and install it. 
• To live stream Wimbledon 2022, all you need to do is select a UK server from its list of available servers and connect. You'll then be able to hop over those geo-restrictions, with the likes of BBC iPlayer opening its online gates to you.
• We also want to ensure your money is well spent, so we would recommend going for a VPN that offers a risk free trial. ExpressVPN is one of many providers that has a 30-day money back guarantee.

• New to VPN? Find out how to use a VPN to unblock geo-restrictions

Who won the last ENG vs PAK T20i?

In the last game – the 6th in this seemingly endless T20 series – England won the toss and elected to field – a gambit that hasn’t always paid off for them recently. It turned out to be a very good choice on this occasion, however. 

Pakistan gave Rizwan a rest, which was very sporting of them, since he's spent the series scoring practically all their runs. Mohammed Haris came in (and immediately got out). For England, star bowler Mark Wood was rested and grizzled trundler Richard Gleeson got his fifth cap at the age of 34. That went about as well as you'd expect.

The Lahore pitch started a little sticky and the local fly community were lovin’ it – it looked nightmarish from a distance but the players seemed to be unfussed by the huge swarms of large bugs. According to David Gower on the Sky commentary, the bugs are in fact moths, which would explain their size and tendency to appear in wide shots, swarming in the direction of the floodlights.

In their innings, PAK rebuilt well after a lacklustre powerplay, and eventually reached a seemingly very defendable 169/6 in their 20 overs. Babar Azam (87no from 59) batted superbly with good support from Iftikhar in the middle overs and Nawaz at the death. Cute demon Sam Curran and deceptively slow, hulking mullet man Reece Topley are both awkward customers in their own way and they were the most effective of England's bowlers. 

However, PAK's wheels fell off in no uncertain terms as soon as England started batting. Their talented, explosive yet rather brittle array of batsmen had a very good day today. England brought up the 50 without loss in – wait for it – three overs. By the end of the powerplay they'd slowed very slightly but Phil Salt finished the match within 15 overs. He was 88no, scored at a temendous strike rate of 214. He received similarly brutal support from opening partner Alex Hales (27 at an even faster 225), before the elegant Dawid Malan (26 at 144) and very tricky Ben Duckett (26 at 162)  added spice to help Salt wrap it up. 

What a great series this has been, and it’s locked at 3-3 as we go into the 7th and final game. Every match has swung drastically, unlike the ball, making picking a winner a fool’s errand. England absolutely pasted Pakistan in the last game, but the topsy-turvy nature of T20i cricket means you’d back PAK to come storming back in this decider. England are stronger man for man and have looked unbeatable when they've clicked. However, consistent runs from PAK's superb opening pair Azam and Rizwan, allied to some canny bowling, have kept hosts Pakistan in the series.

The Lahore pitch is a belter, although it is also massively infested with bugs – huge moths and crickets and god knows what – which adds a bit of spice. The raw pace of Haris Rauf and Mark Wood has proved effective here, and Pakistan’s spinners have also had some success when they aren‘t being repeatedly dumped out of the ground by Phil Salt and Alex Hales. In the last match, however, the most effective bowlers were England’s awkward squad of Sam Curran and Reece Topley, who both vary their pace and length well. They're also a tricky pair because Curran looks like and is the size of a little boy, while the mulleted Topley looks like a bouncer at a Newcastle nightclub. 

Fun fact: the only other 7-match T20i series before this one was Malawi vs Zambia. Did you see that one? Malawi won 5-1, with one game rained off, which I'd imagine doesn't happen very often in Malawi.

I asked the uncanny valley art generation AI DALL-E to create an image called 'England vs Pakistan in a punk rock cricket match'. And this is what it looked like.