Pakistan drew the preceding four Test series with England 2-2 to rise to number one in the world Test rankings.
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There was little respite for Pakistan as they faced the prospects of an embarrassing 5-0 whitewash in their One-day worldwide series against England on Saturday when pacer Mohammad Irfan was ruled out of the contest because of a hamstring problem. Captain Azhar Ali stole the show and scored 80. We speak a hell of a lot.
Pakistan had only three wickets in hand when Moeen topped and tailed his spell with his second success, Nawaz stumped going walkabout.
Liam Plunkett took a superb catch leaping to his left at mid-on to account for Sarfraz Ahmed off Rashid, who trapped Mohammad Rizwan in front and ended Azhar’s cautious 108-ball innings courtesy of a miscued drive to long-off. I don’t think that’s the group of people we’ve got in this squad.
England are a case in point.
Lionel Messi scored on his return from global retirement as Argentina beat Uruguay 1-0 to go top of the South American World Cup qualifying group.
“From where England were 18 months ago they changed the mentality and we have to do the same thing”, said Azhar. “We needed a partnership, we knew he [Dawson] was playing his first match so that’s why we tried to play positively”.
“It’s not surprised me”, he said.
“However good Gooch’s side were – after all, the iconic Ian Botham was a member – the current side would beat them”.
Irfan took two for 25 in five overs but then twice went on and off the field and bowled only one more delivery, a wide, before, after pulling up in delivery stride, he walked off for the final time.
With personnel such as Azhar’s own Surrey team-mate Jason Roy they have the firepower to make it count.
Some of the pre-match talk had focused on England supposedly displaying a new ruthless streak and taking their game onto a whole new level, perhaps fortified by their mammoth record score of 444-3 in Nottingham. “Inzi and myself have developed a really good relationship”.
“Where we are lacking as a batting unit we are not rotating the strike and we don’t have the guys who can clear the ropes”.
England also caught superbly, barring one tough chance missed in the deep by Chris Jordan.
Hasan Ali, already in the ODI team, will replace him for the Twenty20 at Old Trafford. The Pakistan team also featured all-rounder Imad Wasim, born in the south Wales town of Swansea.
Even when the numbers are broken down to averages per completed match, given only Zimbabwe have played more fixtures since 1 April previous year, they still lead the way across all the boards bar clearing the boundary, with New Zealand averaging 6.09 sixes per innings to their 5.4. “He will return to Pakistan and will work on his fitness in the National Cricket Academy (in Lahore)”, a PCB media release stated. Headingley is never the easiest place to bowl spin, but he’s looking the real deal now.
“I just went (back) there once”.
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“My father had a job there, he’s an engineer”.
