Re: England vs Pakistan 3rd ODI (d/n), 5th September 2006,The Rose Bowl
So Pakistan win, after all. A big sigh of relief from the fans after our late order made a complete mess of things. While the first ODI was clearly won by Pak bowlers who completely dominated English batsmen and made it a walk in the park for our batsmen, this second game was a much better contest. From a Pak batting standpoint, three things are clear:
While Hafeez is promising, our opening conundrum remains.
Our Big Three (Younis, Yousef and Inzi) are the only in-form and consistent batsmen. Younis coming in at #3 and scoring again and again proves Imran Khan's point about our best batsmen coming in early rather than late.
Our lower order needs some good kicks on their combined arses. Pakistan clearly benefited from keeping their wickets for the late inning slog, as by God they needed each of those wickets for the end.
Good win for the team. Congratulations!
ps. On a by-note, while Shoaib Akhtar is frequently called Shoaib Chucker, he may also end up with the dubious title of Shoaib Cheater. Lets see how Mike Dumbo Proctor rules on that one.