England stroll to 9 wicket win over Pakistan in 3rd ODI

England clinch four match series 3-0.


Afp February 18, 2012

DUBAI: A 170 run opening partnership between Kevin Pietersen and captain Alastair Cook ensured that England would take home the One Day Internationals trophy from a tour where they were whitewashed in the Tests series.

Pietersen made 111, while Cook fell on 80 as England made 226 for the loss of one wicket in 38 overs.

Earlier, Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal hit soild half-centuries to help Pakistan to a challenging 222 in the third day-night international against England at Dubai Stadium here on Saturday.

Afridi hit a 55-ball 51 while Umar scored a 92-ball 50 during their 79-run sixth wicket stand which lifted Pakistan from a precarious 97-5 after Misbahul Haq won his first toss in the four-match series and chose to bat.

But Pakistan, trailing 2-0 after losing the first two matches in Abu Dhabi, initially failed to improve their fortunes as they lost Azhar Ali (five), Mohammad Hafeez (29) and Misbah (one) in the space of just two runs.

Two of these wickets went to paceman Stuart Broad, who finished with 3-42, while the impressive Steven Finn added one to his early breakthrough of Imran Farhat (nine) in this pacemen domination period.

Finn - who took four wickets apiece in the first two matches after sitting out the test series - finished with 3-24 off ten overs.

Afridi and Umar repaired the innings, with Afridi hitting three boundaries and a six.

Broad returned for his second spell to dismiss Umar, caught by Samit Patel after hitting just one boundary.

Afridi followed four runs later when he failed to connect properly with a big drive off paceman James Anderson who finished with 2-52.

Pakistan were forced to leave out experienced batsman Younis Khan who was suffering from a fever. Left-arm spinner Andul Rehman was also left out from Wednesday's line-up and Asad Shafiq and Adnan Akmal were brought in.

England remained unchanged from the second match.

Shafiq (18) also added 46 for the fifth wicket with Umar before he was run out. Umar Gul made 27 not out to give some late momentum to the innings.

COMMENTS (26)

Syed Shah | 12 years ago | Reply

@The Flying Object: Yes Sir please check out the record, you will not find any discrepancy. No body is likely to break his record of maximum failures. And Sir we do not need Afridi's bowling. We have other specialist bowlers. We want his batting. If he cannot deliver with the bat he must be made to retired. High time we stopped hero worship. He must deliver with the bat. We have other very good spinners and all-rounders.

Hasham | 12 years ago | Reply

Cricket has been reduced to 'noora kushti' by the ICC. Same model followed by WWE. But the ICC model lacks entertainment. ICC should hire someone from the WWE and be done with it!

VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ