September 21, 2010

England - Pakistan ODI series

Fouth ODI match of the Pakistan-England series was played at Lord's, London. England were leading the series by 2-1. England needs one more victory to win the series. Pakistan team got the toss right and they decided to bat first.

Kamran Akmal and Mohammad Hafeez opened the batting innings for the Pakistan team. Both opened well and made a first wicket partnership of 62 runs before Kamran Akmal gave a catch to Andrew Strauss. After the first fall, Pakistan quickly lost 2 more wickets which increased the pressure for their team. The middle order batsmen played well and came out of the critical situation by contributing some good runs to the teams total. At the end of the innings, Abdul Razzaq quick-fired scoring 44 runs from just 20 deliveries which included 8 fours and 1 six. After 50 overs, Pakistan ended up scoring 265 runs loosing 7 wickets. Graeme Swann was the most economical bowler for England with an economy rate of 3.7 runs per over and 4 wickets.


England needed 266 runs to win the match from 50 overs. Steve Davies and Andrew Strauss were the openers for their team and started off very well. They put up a very good partnership of 113 runs which made their team be very confident of winning this match. After the breakage of England's first wicket, Pakistan gained pace in gaining wickets. Soon, England started to loose wickets in regular intervals. They could not resist the bowling attack made by Pakistan. By 46.1 overs, England lost all its 10 wickets and ended up scoring a total of 227 runs. Pakistan won the match by 38 runs. All the credit goes to Umar Gul and Shoaib Akthar who took 4 and 3 wickets respectively. Man of the match was Umar Gul for his brilliant bowling performance.


After this win, the series has been leveled to 2-2. Now either of them can win the series.

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