The ongoing series is Arthur’s second ODI assignment in-charge of Pakistan’s side – the first one being a two-match ODI series against Ireland.
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Victory saw England go 1-0 up in the five-match series. England’s one-day squad will receive a briefing on Thursday from a three-member panel which toured Bangladesh to assess security for the series, comprising three one-dayers and two Tests there in October.
Morgan and Ben Stokes (15 not out) kept the required-run-rate in check as they added 35 runs before rain halted their progress for nearly 35 minutes.
A fixture guaranteed to make history, because the third umpire will call front foot no-balls, will take another interesting twist if England field Liam Dawson alongside Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid.
And even if they get rid of one of them early, they will have to deal with the likes of Joe Root who recently smashed a 254 against Pakistan in the Test series.
Meanwhile opening partner Alex Hales, who managed just 145 runs at during the preceding 2-2 drawn Test series against Pakistan, again fell cheaply.
“I have been in that position before and it’s a nice feeling to be able to play with freedom in white-ball cricket”, said Morgan.
Pakistan, following its results in England, and India’s rain-affected fourth Test draw with the West Indies in Port-of-Spain, is now No. 1 in the Test rankings for the first time in history.
“Being number one is a massive boost and a proud moment for Pakistan cricket and the whole nation is very happy about it”, said one-day captain Azhar Ali.
Set an initial target of 261 runs to win, England’s run chase was disrupted by rain, but their scoring rate was high enough to leave them well ahead when rain stopped play. It was a dismissal that would have a knock-on effect later in the innings too, with the opener burning his side’s one review by curiously sending his clearly feathered top-edge to Jos Buttler behind the stumps upstairs. Their senior players who gave them such a calming influence in Test cricket, like Misbah (ul-Haq) and Younis (Khan), are not there.
The default setting for Pakistan’s limited-overs captain seems to be “under pressure” but Azhar had accepted the situation with a laugh and a shrug on the eve of the match. But 20 minutes of rain from the south disrupted their flow and in successive overs after the resumption, the pair perished to catches at mid-off, first through Shoaib skewing a drive off Plunkett before a masterful back-of-the-hand slower ball from Woakes fooled Sarfraz. “We’ve got a lot of confidence going into Saturday”.
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“If we do that and bring our plans in, we can definitely challenge England”.
