Re: Pakistan v England test and ODI series - LahoriMunda's daily diary
LM's Review of the fourth ODI
Pakistan held their nerve to prevent the series from going into a deciding 5th match and sealed the series with their third successive win in as many games. This seemed like a tricky pitch to bat on with the ball not really coming onto the bat and also staying a little low. Inzi won the toss for the first time in the series and elected to bat. The Pakistani skipper had predicted before the game that a score of 270 was going to be a tough one on this pitch. Well, his batsmen got way less then that as Pakistan got all out for 210 on board, leaving Inzamam stranded at 81 not out.
Salman Butt was the first to go and then everyone else followed. English opening bowlers bowled tight spells and Butt and Akmal were kept in check for a little time. Just as they were opening their arms and run rate was picking up Butt was run courtesy of brilliant fielding at covers by Solanki. Younis Khan followed next ball and Akmal in the next over and the top order was shattered. Mohammad Yousif followed soon as well. Malik and Inzi tried to normalize the proceedings and put on a decent partnership and some fireworks from Afridi ensured Pakistan corss the 200 run mark but the total of 210 still looked a very easy target to achieve for the English batsmen.
All credit must go to the Pakistan bowlers as they all bowled spirited spells to make sure England never got easy pickings. Rana struck twice in one over as he dismissed Prior and Strauss. After the first match in which Strauss scored valuable runs he hasn’t really had a good time in the middle. Akhtar struck soon as he cleaned up Solanki leaving England at 25/3. England’s top order failed miserably yet again and only 2 of their top 6 batsmen reached double figures. Flintoff top scored with 40.
England's lower order did try to come back in the game with some fighting partnerships. Blackwell and Ali put on 50 for the 9th wicket and then Ali and Anderson put together another 35 odd runs but in the end the task was just too much for them as England bundled out for 197 handing Pakistan the match by 13 runs as well as the series.
England will have pride to play for in the next game while Pakistan should be looking to go all out to win the next game and move up to second place in the ODI rankings.
Re: Pakistan v England test and ODI series - LahoriMunda's daily diary
LM's Review of the final ODI
England finally got the victory they needed to give them some kind of confidence ahead of their tour to India. Pakistan opted to rest skipper Inzamam and the pace due of Shoaib and Sami.
England won the toss and opted to bat first but their batsmen made a real mess of their plans as they managed 206 runs in their allotted 50 overs for the loss of 9 wickets. Mohammad Asif finally got a chance to display his skills and he bowled well to take two wickets in his 7 overs conceding only 14 runs in the process. Solanki was the top scorer for England, he made 49 runs. Flintoff who played as a specialist batsman in this game made 39.
All the Pakistani bowlers bowled well, I would have personally let Asif complete his quota of 10 overs but Pakistan opted to use their super sub Danish Kaneria and he finished off Asif’s 3 remaining overs.
Thetarget was not too big and Pakistan looked to be in total command after a couple of early hiccups. Akmal and Butt both left cheaply but Yasir Hameed playing after a while in the national side put together a good partnership of just over 100 runs with Mohammad Yousif. They both scored half centuries but after they left the rest of the batting collapsed. Younis Khan is a good deputy and his skills as a captain in the absence of Inzi are always appreciated but his batting especially in ODI’s leaves a lot to be desired. He has been playing for a while now and his record suggests he is a mediocre batsmen. In this particular series he played one good innings, in a lost cause in the first game. Since then he has scored 15, 0,0,15. Those are not scores of the vice captain of a side. We have plenty of talented batsmen waiting in the wings. Bazid Khan is one guy who should have been given a chance in this series. Younis needs to work hard on playing consistently for the side, he has the talent but it has never truly materialized in the ODI’s.
In the end Pakistan’s collapse also ensured that our points tally stayed exactly where it was before we started the series and we lost the chance to move up to the second spot in the ODI’s. Nevertheless it was a good entertaining series and Pakistan stamped their authority on England in no uncertain way. Best of luck to both teams.