England have taken a 2-1 lead in the four-match one-day international series against Pakistan thanks to a six-wicket victory in the penultimate match in Sharjah.

It was an impressive display from England's bowlers as David Willey, Reece Topley and Moeen Ali all took a wicket apiece after Pakistan opened the batting.

However, the glory went to Chris Woakes, who finished on figures of 4-40, taking out Babar Azam (22), Iftikhar Ahmed (3), Zafar Gohar (15) and Mohammad Irfan for a duck.

Pakistan struggled on the attack as Mohammad Hafeez top-scored with 45, contributing to a total of 208 as the team were bowled out in the final over of the innings.

Despite a positive display on the field, England's chase started poorly as opening batsman Jason Roy was dismissed by Irfan for just seven inside the third over.

Joe Root was the next to fall on just 11 runs, but it was not all doom and gloom for the Yorkshireman as he has now reached an impressive 2,000 runs in 2015 in all formats of the game.

With England on just 27 runs, Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan were given the task of leading the attack, but the former, who claimed his first ever one-day international century on Friday, mustered 30 runs before he was taken out by Gohar.

Shoaib Malik bowled out Morgan for 35, giving Pakistan some momentum, but James Taylor and Jos Buttler managed to put England back on top.

Taylor brought up his seventh ODI half-century with a second six of the innings, leaving England requiring 29 runs to win the contest.

An unbeaten 117-run partnership between Taylor (67) and Buttler (49) resulted in England reaching that 209 total with 54 balls to spare.