England strolled to victory in the third ODI against Pakistan. But what did we think of it?
Two games in and two wins for England. Did anyone see that coming? Not us. Here we fail dismally to predict what will happen in the third game.
A captain’s knock from Alastair Cook and a fine spell from Steve Finn are enough to lead England to a not-as-huge victory in the second ODI. Here’s our verdict.
A captain’s knock from Alastair Cook and a fine spell from Steve Finn are enough to lead England to a huge victory in the first ODI. Here’s our verdict.
If England had beaten Pakistan comfortably in their Test match series, there would have still been some nerves ahead of the One Day Internationals, such is the away side’s perceived inconsistency in this format, particularly in Asian conditions. However, following the three-nil loss, expectations are so low that in some respects, anything but an absolute trouncing will be considered positive.
When we wrote our predictions for the Pakistan vs. England series, we should have added a warning about the risks of betting, or maybe the effects of drinking.
Get to number one. Get whitewashed. Drop everyone. Start again.
Pakistan continued to dominate with the bat, before a flurry of wickets gave England a smidgeon of hope.
After a series chiefly based around batting torment, the likes of which last seen when Ronnie Irani was playing for England, today saw Pakistan take firm control of the game with patient but controlled innings from Azhar Ali and Younus Khan, the latter scoring the first century of the series.
Ordinarily, dismissing your hosts for 99 after they won the toss would be cause for joy. But this was no ordinary day; it was a day that had observers reaching for their thesauruses trying to find both new superlatives and new curses.