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Pakistan cruise
to a 7-wicket win at a gloomy Lord's |
September 02, 2006 (Scorecard)
 Pakistan
went onto win the 2nd ODI of the 5-match NatWest
Series by 7 wickets with most of their chase of
167 runs coming in bad light conditions. Their
experienced batsmen Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf
and Skipper Inzamam were responsible for
Pakistan's successful chase under overcast
conditions at Lord's with 20 balls to spare. It
was yet another dismal show from England with
their problems starting from the 1st over
itself. It was a curtailed game of 40 overs per
side due to the frequent rain stoppages.
Chasing 167 from 40 overs, Pakistan has lost its
two openers to Jon Lewis who was playing just
his fourth ODI of his career. Lewis had also got
Younis Khan caught behind early in his spell,
but Umpire Billy Doctrove signaled it as a no
ball for overstepping; it was a dubious decision
with Lewis having some part of his foot behind
the crease. Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf then
batted with extreme care to ensure that Pak did
not provide any inroads for the English bowlers
to come back in the match. Younis Khan fell
after making 55 with his side requiring just 59
to get which Inzamam had got along with Mohammad
Yousuf with complete ease. Inzamam played a
great innings of 42 which came in just 26 balls
with the help of 5 boundaries. Mohammad Yousuf
was calm at one end scoring an unbeaten 49. For
England, Jon Lewis was the only decent performer
with figures of 2 for 11 in his 8 overs. For his
four wicket haul early in the day, the
Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akthar was named as
the man of the match.
 Inzamam-ul-Haq
had won the toss this morning and he put England
to bat first. Shoaib Akhtar struck in his first
over itself sending back Andrew Strauss for a
first ball duck. Marcus Trescothick who was
never in at the crease was the next to be
dismissed by the brilliance of Mohammad Asif who
then accounted for the danger man Kevin
Pietersen yet again. Before Pietersen fell,
Shoaib Akhtar at the other end had dismissed the
man in form, Ian Bell with a quick pitched up
delivery. England's innings never got going
following those early blows. Mohammad Asif was
bowled out by Inzamam on the trot and his quota
of 8 overs conceded just 10 runs. England in the
end were bundled out for 166 with five balls
remaining in their innings. They atleast got
their thanks to the efforts of Rikki Clarke
(39), Chris Read (30) and Paul Collingwood (35).
Shoaib Akhtar had also taken the wickets of
Clarke and Gough towards the end to finish with
figures of 4 for 28 in his 8 overs. Abdul Razzaq
was the other bowler who looked impressive
getting the ball to reverse swing during the
middle overs, he picked up the wickets of
Dalrymple and Read and gave away 30 runs in 6.1
overs.
The Pakistan side for this match was an
unchanged one from the Cardiff One Dayer whereas
England had brought in Jon Lewis for Sajid
Mahmood. England's decision of playing Lewis
paid off as his bowling style was tailor made
for the seaming conditions witnessed in today's
match. Pakistan must be on cloud nine with
Shoaib Akhtar's comeback looking to be a major
boost and Mohammad Asif in his own way has
proved to be a deadly bowling pair with Shoaib.
The only problem Pakistan seems to be having is
the opening batsmen - Shoaib Malik and Mohammad
Hafeez. For England, they are playing like
minnows when it comes to One Day Cricket! They
need an inspired match winning century from one
of its batsmen in the coming days to lift their
morale and change their outlook towards the
limited overs version of the game.
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