Tom Banton offers a thrilling treat before the heavens open... ENGLAND V PAKISTAN TALKING POINTS

NICK FRIEND: Banton provided the sparks in a terrific cameo, before the rain came down to ruin what looked set to become an intriguing affair

Scorecard: England v Pakistan

England’s slow start…

Well, for a short time anyway, England were behind the eight-ball. With Imad Wasim as canny as ever and Shaheen Shah Afridi finding a hint of swing with the new ball, the home side’s top order was forced to creep along at a somewhat sedate pace.

They ticked along to their lowest powerplay score in four years, ending the first six overs just 34 for 1, scoring at a rate of just 5.67 per over.

By the time the hosts went to their fifty, they had used up 49 deliveries, with Pakistan in control and England in need of momentum…

Tom Banton’s Manchester night out

And it came in the shape of Tom Banton. The Somerset 21-year-old had seen enough and unleashed. There were five sixes and four further boundaries, several of which were struck off the bowling of Shadab Khan, whose leg-spin came in for particular punishment.

Haris Rauf, meanwhile, paid the price for bowling fast from his skiddy trajectory – Banton responded by ramping him first over short fine leg and then, with the fielder pushed back onto the rope, all the way for six.

By the time Banton’s cameo had come to an end, he strolled away safe in the knowledge that he had taken his chance. Had Jason Roy been fit, he might not even have played. Elite sport, however, is a game of opportunities.

^{A wet night in Manchester...}

And while Banton has plenty more yet to do should he wish to usurp the Roy-Bairstow axis that has been so good to England for so long, he might just have leapfrogged Dawid Malan here.

Openings among this white-ball top order don’t come around all too often, and so taking them when they come is of the utmost importance. It is, one assumes, why James Vince is absent from this series, while both Sam Billings and David Willey are both at Emirates Old Trafford.

Another summer treat…

Nine games into the T20 Blast, we have seen just one completed game. In Manchester, it was more of the same.

A constant rainbow offered a glimmer of hope as it hung itself over the back of the ground and was visible to television viewers whenever during the lengthy delay the camera shot back to the murky darkness. But as so often in recent weeks, the rain won and the game lost.

What a summer...

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