“It’s great to be the first player to play with the roof closed, on the competition, because I was the first player to hit in the centre court with the roof closed”, said Nadal, who found “no big difference” on the court with the roof closed.
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Pakistan’s Sarfraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik shared a fluent partnership of 163 to lead the tourists to a consolation four-wicket win over England in the fifth and final one-day global in Cardiff on Sunday.
Is one innings good enough to warrant a good series?
Pakistan, too, have their focus on the Champions Trophy – at least they are assured of a place there, unlike the 2019 World Cup, for which automatic qualification is becoming an increasingly tough challenge. “Jonny was outstanding but he’s finding it hard to get into a winning side, which is a good problem for us”, AP quoted Morgan as saying.
“Every game throughout the series, we’ve come out with a hunger and determination to perform at our best”.
Inserted under grey skies, England found themselves 92 for three before Jason Roy and Ben Stokes combined to add 72 watchful runs. Hosts won the five match series 4-1.
Sarfraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik laid the foundation during a fourth-wicket stand of 163, after both walked to the crease in the 14th over, as Pakistan pulled off their highest successful ODI chase outside of Asia.
Morgan talked up England’s commitment to an aggressive approach in ODI cricket.
Losing the series Pakistan team will now play for the honour in the fifth and final one-day worldwide match. The two sides will play their final match today in Cardiff. In the players rankings for bowlers, Australia pacers Mitchell Starc, James Faulkner and John Hastings have made significant gains in Sri Lanka with their perfomance.
India are still third, level with South Africa thanks to a rating of 110 but ahead on points with 5278 compared to South Africa’s 5047. “I think that is very important”.
Sarfraz, who scored Pakistan’s first ODI hundred at Lord’s in the second match, was the leading overall run-scorer in the series with exactly 300 runs at an average of 60.
Azhar and Sarfraz are the only two Pakistan batsmen, who featured in the recent series against England, to figure inside the top 50.
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.
But, England will be aware of the unpredictable Pakistan team, who will be hell bent to finish the series with a win.
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The senior batsman was a surprise choice as the Pakistan ODI captain after Misbah-ul-Haq retired from the format following last year’s World Cup.
