England beat Pakistan by four wickets to claim a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five ODI series, with Joe Root hitting 89 at Lord’s.
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“The plan from the start was to be fit and ready to bowl by the third match and the way things are going it is looking likely I will be an option for Eoin in Nottingham if needed”, said Stokes.
“We didn’t bowl in good areas and were too short in the beginning which allowed the in-form English openers to score quick runs”, The Express Tribune quoted Ali as saying.
Wicketkeeper Buttler says it was a lot to take in as the players try to remain focused on tomorrow’s game at Lord’s.
“Jason Roy continued his fantastic form from the Sri Lanka series, Joe Root was as usual – he may as well start on 50 it seems”.
All-rounder Ben Stokes made a comeback from a calf injury in Southampton but was unable to bowl.
He managed 102 runs in six innings of the Test series before being left out for the series decider at The Oval, and made 11 from 15 balls in Pakistan’s defeat in the first ODI at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday.
Pakistan, described by their own head coach Mickey Arthur as “behind the times” on the eve of the match, showed three changes with Sami Aslam, Yasir Shah and Hasan Ali in for Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Nawaz and Umar Gul.
There was no hot-spot mark but Australian third umpire Simon Fry decide the spike on real time snicko was large enough to give Aslam out. Anyone who witnessed the performance of Azhar Ali’s side at Lord’s on Saturday would have been forgiven for thinking Moores had taken the job.
Then Wood, in the next over, produced a beauty to clatter into Sharjeel Khan’s off stump for a duck.
Babar Azam was his first foil, playing fluently for 30 before Liam Plunkett’s brisk yorker dislodged a bail via bat and boot.
But Ahmed, as he’d often done during the preceding 2-2 drawn Test series, frustrated England with a mixture of orthodox and improvised shots.
Sarfraz, whose lone previous ODI hundred was against Ireland at last year’s ICC Cricket World Cup, completed a 124-ball century when he glanced Plunkett for his sixth four.
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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Ben Stokes will be back off his long run in the third one-day global against Pakistan at Trent Bridge – and admits he has had a gutful of not bowling.
