Assistant coach Paul Farbrace said there were strong words in England’s dressing room after they slid to a six-wicket defeat in the opening one-dayer against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
Advertisement
Hafeez shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 106 with Babar Azam, who made a run-a-ball 62.
He said: “This is a very special feeling, and something I’ll remember for a long time – and it’s also given us a chance as a team to win this series in tough conditions”.
Pakistan gave Younis Khan a winning finale to one-day cricket on Wednesday, although the retiring batsmen was unable to mark the occasion with a big score. Batting certainly looked easy with those two on the crease, but, once the partnership was broken, when Morgan was caught behind the wicket by Sarfraz Ahmed off the bowling of Shoaib Malik, wickets continued to tumble and England were all out with two balls of their innings to spare. David Willey went for a few runs and England will be hoping the he pulls up the socks.
Morgan top-scored with 76 while Taylor made 60 as the pair added 133 for the fourth wicket as the only highlight of the innings.
They built a most promising platform, from unlikely beginnings, reaching 145 at the start of what would however be a hapless 31st over for England.
Roy was beaten for pace, and swing, bowled by giant left-armer Mohammad Irfan (three for 35) – and then Root missed one that nipped in off the pitch from Anwar Ali, and the lbw decision on the back foot stayed with on-field umpire Johan Cloete after DRS. “I think in Younis’s case this didn’t happen and no one tried to speak to him to find out his feelings”.
Yasir Shah and Wahab Riaz, thought of before the game as the main threats, only took one wicket but underlined their class with miserly spells which never let England get away.
“I have always played with passion for Pakistan and this is probably the best time for me to retire from one-day cricket and this decision is probably the requirement of the time”.
Meanwhile, Iftikhar Ahmed has been named as the 16th member of the ODI squad to fill in the slot that fell vacant following Younis Khan’s retirement.
Topley impressed by taking 3-26 but the rest of England’s attack, including Chris Woakes and spin duo Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, struggled to test Pakistan’s batsmen.
Advertisement
The second ODI is on Friday in Abu Dhabi with Sharjah and Dubai hosting the final two matches the following Tuesday and Friday. Muhammad Hafeez was man of the match for scoring a century.
