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.

1st ODI: Pakistan vs England

Today England and Pakistan played the first ODI cricket match of the ongoing series at ODI at Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. Pakistan won the toss & elected to field first.

As usual, Andrew Strauss and Steve Davies opened the batting innings for the England team. Right from the start of the innings, England showed an brilliant performance. They started well with an good run rate more than 6 runs per over. 1st wicket partnership resulted in 78 runs from just 65 deliveries. After the fall of Andrew Strauss, Steve Davies partnered with Jonathan Trott where they both again put up a very good partnership of 75 runs. Jonathan Trott and Steve Davies put up their half centuries respectively. England till the end of their batting innings played well. Everyone contributed some decent runs to the teams total. Total overs was restricted to 41 overs. England completed its 41 overs and scored a magnificent 274 runs in total with the loss of 6 wickets. Teams highest scorer was Steve Davies who scored 87 runs from just 67 deliveries which included 13 fours. Pakistan's most successful bowler was Saeed Ajmal where he took 4 important wickets but his bowling economy was not that good. On the other hand Shoaib Akhtar bowled magnificently with an economy rate of just 3.5 runs per over but could not pick up any wicket.

Pakistan needed 275 runs from 41 overs to win the first ODI match of the series. As expected Pakistan team gave an very good and aggressive start with the openers Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal. Both played well till Graeme Swann came into the bowling attack. He picked up Mohammad Hafeez wicket where he gave a straight catch to Tim Bresnan. Pakistan lost its first wicket when its total was 62 runs. This fall resulted in continuous lose of wickets where batsmen could not stay long at the crease. Pakistan started to loose wickets in regular intervals meanwhile the asking rate got raising up. After the fall of first 3 wickets, Pakistan batsmen showed some resistance and started to contribute some runs to the team, but this did not work. Pakistan somehow managed to reach 250 runs in total after completing 41 overs. England won the match by 24 runs. All England bowlers performed equally well and picked up wickets. This was an complete team effort as far as England's victory is concerned. They showed it through bat, ball and in the field as well.

England are now leading the series by 1-0. Man of the match was Steve Davies for his 87 knock and an magnificent catch of Umar Akaml who was looking very dangerous with the bat.

Test match highlights between Pakistan and England

Pakistan is playing a test match against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, England. England won the toss and elected to bat first. On the first day of the play, England opened its first batting innings with a good start where there was some good partnerships which helped England to put up a good total. The biggest partnership was between Paul Collingwood and Eoin Morgan which was 205 runs. After the break of this partnership, England lost all its remaining 5 wickets in quick succession. England had put up a total score of 354 runs and lost all its 10 wickets. Eoin Morgan scored a beautiful 130 runs which helped the England a lot to put up this good total. Mohammad Asif took 5 wickets and Mohammad Aamer took 3 wickets.

Pakistan opened its first batting innings with the openers Imran Farhat and Salman Butt. First wicket to loose was Salman Butt where he gave a easy catch to Matt Prior and he departed scoring only 1 run. This was a bad start for the Pakistan team which turned the entire innings. Pakistan soon lost 6 wickets with a total score of 47 runs on board. After this Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Aamer put up a partnership of 48 runs. Shoaib Malik and Aamer got out when Pakistan total was 105 and 108 runs. Later on, Umar Gul came in to bat where he remained unbeaten till the end of the Pakistan's first batting innings. He scored a magnificent 65 runs from just 46 deliveries which included 8 fours and 4 sixes. This magnificent performance helped Pakistan to come out of the Follow on. Pakistan by 54 overs, lost all its 10 wickets putting up a total of 182 runs. England was leading Pakistan by 172 runs.

In the second batting innings, England lost its first wicket in the very first over itself. It was Andrew Strauss who departed without scoring a run. England soon started to loose wickets with very less runs adding up in the score. Matt Prior came into bat at 5 down where he stayed till the end of the England's innings and remained unbeaten. He gave a good partnership with Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn which helped England to put up a very good total. Matt Prior was unbeaten scoring 102 runs. England declared its second batting innings with after putting up a total score of 262 runs with one wicket remaining. Last wicket resulted in a unbeaten 489 runs. Umar Gul took 3 wickets in this innings.


Pakistan needed 435 runs in total to win the match. Currently Day 3 session 3 has been completed and the play for the day has been called off. Pakistan in between 3.1 over to 4.1 over lost 3 important wickets. This was again a poor start from them as they have lost 3 top order batsmen. Right not Pakistan has scored a total of 15/3. Pakistan needs 420 runs to win the match with 7 wickets remaining and 2 days left. 

Stuart Board and James Anderson are bowling brilliantly. Lets see what they will do in tomorrows play. See you all with some more updates on tomorrows play :-)