Morgan inspires England to lift series against Pakistan

Morgan’s latest match-winning Rose Bowl century sees England to a crushing 121 run-victory.

SOUTHAMPTON: Eoin Morgan’s latest match-winning Rose Bowl century saw England to a crushing 121 run-victory against Pakistan as they took the five-match one-day series 3-2 to end a scandal-marred season.

It also meant England won consecutive Test, Twenty20 and limited overs series against Pakistan whose tour was overshadowed by ‘spot-fixing’ allegations.

Man-of-the-match Morgan made 107 not out in a total of 256 for six after England slumped to 47 for three following captain Andrew Strauss’s decision to bat first.

Pakistan were eventually dismissed for 135 with 13 overs still left as seamer Stuart Broad took three for 25 and off-spinner Graeme Swann three for 26.

For Pakistan the highlight was the 35-year-old Shoaib Akhtar as he gave fans something to remember him by with three wickets for 40 runs, including an impressive opening spell of two for 17 in six blistering overs.

“It was a huge game of cricket really, a very tough series,” said Strauss. “It’s been a long summer and we’ve been to some pretty unpleasant places as a team over the last few days and had to show a lot of unity and togetherness,” added Strauss, the man-of-the-series,.

“You could see how much it meant to us when the last wicket went down. Motivation wasn’t a problem.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said, “I was thinking about a happy ending but it hasn’t happened.

“There were some controversies on this tour but my team was very united and this will give us results in the future.”

The captain also urged the use of the Decision Review System after the umpires made a few mistakes during the series.

“One decision can change the whole match. If such things [wrong umpiring decisions] happen it changes the whole match,” said Afridi.

England had a massive slice of luck when Kamran Akmal was given out leg before by home umpire Ian Gould, despite edging onto his pad.

Strauss urges ICC to curb corruption

With the end of the England tour, marred by controversy, Strauss also called on the International Cricket Council (ICC) to leave “no stone unturned” in their probe into cricket corruption.

“This summer has clearly demonstrated when there is a sniff of something it devalues the whole game and nobody wants to play cricket in those circumstances,” said Strauss.

“The ICC must leave no stone unturned. We are keen to move on from this series and not have a repeat of this, which is why it’s so important the ICC take a strong lead.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2010.