ABU DHABI: England seem to have returned to winning ways after beating Pakistan in the second one day international in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Chasing 251 to win, England restricted Pakistan to 230 to get an unassailable lead in the four match series.
Earlier, Alastair Cook hit a second successive hundred to propel England to another challenging score of 250-4 against Pakistan in the second day-night international at Abu Dhabi Stadium here on Wednesday.
Cook scored 102 for his fourth hundred, the first England captain and ninth batsmen for his country to hit back-to-back hundreds in one-dayers, to carry on the good work after his career-best 137 in Monday's win in the first match.
The 27-year-old left-hander put on 67 for the opening wicket with Kevin Pietersen (26) after England won the second successive toss and batted. He also added 49 with Jonathan Trott (23) for the second and 78 for the third with Ravi Bopara who made an attractive 58.
Cook was again at his fluent best, hitting 10 boundaries off 121 balls before he gave a return catch to leg-spinner Shahid Afridi in the 42nd over.
He hit paceman Umar Gul for two boundaries to reach 99 and then took a single off Abdul Rehman to reach the three-figure mark as he carried the batting right from the off.
Pakistan, who lost the first match by 130 runs here, brought in paceman Aizaz Cheema, batsman Azhar Ali and left-armer Rehman in place of Wahab Riaz, Asad Shafiq and Shoaib Malik.
England, who remained unchanged from the first match, also owed their progress to a dropped catch by part-time wicket-keeper Umar Akmal who dropped Cook on 28 off Afridi, a costly lapse for Pakistan.
Ajmal, who finished with 1-54, again provided the breakthrough when he trapped Pietersen leg-before in the 16th over. Paceman Cheema had Trott, caught behind before Cook and Bopara followed their 131-run stand in the first match with another solid partnership.
Bopara, who hit four boundaries during his 66-ball knock, gave finishing touches to the innings with a 56-run stand for the fourth wicket with Eoin Morgan whose 25 not out had one six.
The squads for the second ODI are:
Pakistan: Misbahul Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Aizaz Cheema, Saeed Ajmal, Abdul Rehman, Azhar Ali.
England: Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.
COMMENTS (25)
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i think Farhat has no quality to play internation cricket. he cannot attack he has no good timing, but he has relation with chief selector.
england won the match luckily, as umer akmal dismissed painfully
What's with the conspiracy angle? There generally is one when Pakistan lose any match anywhere.
Bro what misbah can do alone? Team wins all work together.......... Throw umer akmal out and bring real keeper in.
My playing 11 would be Asad & Hafeez opening, Azhar, Yousan, Umar, Afridi,Adnan, Hammad, Ajmal, Gul & Cheema or Wahab. Misbah must lead test side, where as i personally feel that for one days & T20 the task should be given to Hafeez. its hightime we do it because i don't see misbah playing next worldcup and we should groom our captain and team combition from this very series. Hammad must be given decent chance to play & develop himself as a potent allrounder down the order with afridi adding power to batting line up. Farhat & Malik don't deserve a place in team.
Match should not be solely decided on the toss of a coin. @ProudPakistani: being thankless is better than being witless. To clairfy, Misbah is doing a great job for test matches, but one day cricket requires a different set of leadership skills. Many teams have adopted this approach, mere pride and loud proclamations aren't enough to be a winner.
So now in Ajmal vs England, England is winning as they are playing as an unit. All the hype of the one-man team is being exposed now. Ek sikander , baki sab bander.
Pakistani team was winning till the "stars" came in. We need players not corrupt faces or politicians. What is wrong with the winning combination of test team? Why Shoaib Malik or Akmals?
LOL! Pakistani Cricket Team is mediocre and can't even be compared with Bangladesh and all Pakistanis are emotional goobers who were flying high after the English whitewash.
Toss was important & England was lucky enough to win that....Hopefully Pakistan will come back in the last two matches....@Tariq...u r such a thankless guy..grow up man..
@khan bahi:
well said!! we still miss this great bastsman!!
Fully agree with Salman. Pakistan can not chase. Misbah needs to concentrate on Test cricket only and let someone else take over for one day and T20.
Pakistan's batting should learn to play complete 50 overs. If they succeed in doing so they will score around 250 in every match, and by our bowling standards we will easily be able to defend such scores.
lol Pakistan cannot chase. Old universal fact regarding Pakistan. 8 out of 10 times they will fail to achieve the target over 200.
We need an inspired leader for one days, a man of action like Afridi not a gormless leader like Misbah. PCB please make Afridi the captain.
we need old batsman like Qasim omar not like Imran Farhat .everyone know why he is there.. pls PCB think for talent and revival of pakistan cricket as team!!
rehman 0 from 8 balls...hammad azam could have at least scored 8 out of 8 because of his all round abilities
in last odi pakistan packed its batting a bit too much with Malik coming at 8 , this time our batting is too thin for ODIs with Rehman coming at 6 down....Cant understand why we can not have an in between approach...??? what was the need to pack 4 spinners when we could easily have Hammad Azam in for lengthening batting and seam up option.....
44 to get in 30 balls......6 down..and tail not expected to wag..looks like we are heading towards another defeat...unless "captain cool" can take us home......
Pakistani batsmen are making Samit patel look like Underwood or Bedi.....so inept at playing left arm spin.......
Farhat is the great wall of Sialkot! He will block everything till the last over.
Another ODI....another superb hundred by Cook
Imran Farhat is another hole in the ship. Thanks to tour selection, Shoaib Malik is out and I am sure he is out for long. Need to scrap Cheema as well as he is ageing and not fruitful in this series.