England started the series fifth in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI rankings and Root said: “I still think there’s a lot of work to do if we want to be the best team in the world, but we’re going about it the right way”.
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Chasing 252 to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, England were well placed by the time Morgan and Joe Root, who himself passed 50, had posted a century stand off 116 balls for the third wicket.
To be fair, one also needs to give credit to the English bowlers, primarily Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, who bowled a tight line and length with good pace to stifle the Pakistan batsmen. The duo added 64 runs for the third wicket and did it in 63 balls.
After a couple of early stumbles in its reply, a third-wicket partnership of 112 between Root and Eoin Morgan (68) put England on course for the win, with Morgan’s knock ending a run of 23 worldwide innings without a half-century.
Left-hander Morgan s knock on his Middlesex home ground ended a run of 23 worldwide innings without a fifty for the former Ireland star.
“When Ben Stokes [is fit] to bowl, England are definitely even stronger”.
Pakistan are expected to bring in leg-spinner Yasir Shah for the Saturday’s game, most probably at the expense of Mohammad Nawaz.
Pakistan captain Azhar Ali won the toss and made a decision to bat, despite there being a distinctive green tinge to the wicket and grey clouds overhead. Most of their batsmen got decent starts, but only skipper Azhar Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed scored 82 and 55 runs respectively.
Babar Azam (30) struck several stylish boundaries before he played on to Liam Plunkett, leaving Pakistan at 66 for 4.
When heaven opened England were ahead by DL method and eventually, with no play possible, the hosts were declared winners by 44 runs.
But soon after, in trying to accelerate the scoring towards the end of the innings, he swept an Adil Rashid ball straight to Alex Hales at deep midwicket.
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Despite, losing Ahmed, Wasim smashed Plunkett for 15 runs in the 46th over, reaching his half-century off 57 deliveries.
