Bulawayo, October 13, 2001. Hussain, who captained England in 56 ODIs during his 88-match career, stated that his all-time England 50-over side would feature the current side’s entire batting order, cricket.com.au reported.
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England, now 4-0 up in this five-match series, slumped to 72 for four pursuing a target of 248.
Pakistan started this series ninth in the ICC ODI rankings, with only hosts England and the top seven in the standings come the end of September next year qualifying automatically for the 2019 World Cup.
“Over the previous year or so we’ve had our three highest scores (in ODI cricket) and we have the personell in the side who play the way they play and it’s fantastic to have them in the side, guys like Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow”, added Moeen.
“One of our strengths is that we bat all the way down”.
“I am very proud of this group of players”, England captain Eoin Morgan said.
Roy’s eight fours and two sixes from 89 balls provided the foundation for Stokes and Jonny Bairstow to repeat the dose after their match-winning partnership at Headingley three days ago.
Meanwhile, Swansea-born Imad Wasim is looking forward to returning to Wales.
Mohammad Irfan will not remember the match fondly after twice being forced to leave the field due to fitness issues, managing just one delivery – a comical wide – from his last attempt at bowling an over. Pakistan chased down the total with 10 balls to spare and 4 wickets in hand.
Jos Buttler was still experiencing tightness in his hamstring, which forced him to miss the previous game, and it would appear unlikely that he’d be risked, which means another chance for Bairstow.
The giant left-arm fast bowler, himself an injury replacement, only managed five overs in Leeds before being sidelined with cramp.
And they did not disappoint, even if neither were able to finish off the job.
Mahmood, who took on his current role at the start of this series, replacing Mushtaq Ahmed who had been bowling coach for the Test series, defended Pakistan’s attack and said he had seen improvement after they conceded the world record 444 for at Trent Bridge. While Pakistan and England were neck and neck in the Test series that couldn’t be farther from the truth in the ODI series. Perhaps surprisingly, Pakistan are third with 108, although from considerably more matches than the top two. Then Rashid signed off with the wicket of Azhar, whose hard work culminated only in a tame chip to long-off from the final ball of the leg-spinner’s 10 overs.
Jordan, though, was a mixed bag in his first spell with 21 runs coming from his first two overs but he was the bowler to break the opening stand when Sharjeel Khan, who had again showed his penchant for the pull off the hip, skied into the off side when Ben Stokes took a well-judged catch over his shoulder.
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But in the meantime Bairstow, who has already scored almost 1,000 runs in Test cricket this year, is desperate to make the most of any one-day chances he gets, however late they come. We need to change this mentality and thinking.
