SIMON SUNK BY ROGLIC IN RAIN
GIRO D’ITALIA Woakes grabs five to help England to a 4-0 win and send them into World Cup on a high
SIMON YATES saw his Giro d’Italia campaign blown apart on a nightmare stage nine time trial in the rain.
The British rider lost three minutes and 11 seconds on the 34.8km stage as Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic took victory on the day in San Marino.
Yates (below) had looked impressive in the opening time trial, but struggled with the treacherous conditions, slipping back to 24th in the general classification, 5mins 36secs off the pace. Roglic’s win saw him end the day second overall, 1min 50secs behind race leader Valerio Conti.
But the biggest coup of the day for Roglic was finishing so far ahead of Yates, as well as beating Vincenzo Nibali by 65 seconds in the time trial – which gave him an overall lead on the Italian of 3min 34sec. Vince c Fakhar Zaman b Afridi ............. 33 Bairstow c Afridi b Imad Wasim ........... 32 Root c Asif Ali b Hasnain ...................... 84 Morgan c Abid Ali b Afridi ...................... 76 Buttler c Abid Ali b Imad Wasim .......... 34 Stokes c Fakhar Zaman b Hasan Ali ..... 21 Ali lbw b Imad Wasim ................................ 0 Woakes c Babar Azam b Afridi .............. 13 Willey b Afridi ............................................. 14 Curran not out .......................................... 29 Rashid not out ............................................ 2 Extras (lb2, w10, nb1) ................................ 13 Total (9 wkts, 50 overs) ........................ 351 Fall of wickets: 1-63, 2-105, 3-222, 4-257, 5-272, 6-272, 7-295, 8-310, 9-336 Bowling: Hasan 10-0-70-1; Shaheen 10-0-82-4; Hasnain 8-0-67-1; Wasim 10-0-53-3; Fakhar 4-0-23-0; Malik 4-0-29-0; Hafeez 4-0-25-0
Fakhar c Root b Woakes ........................... 0 Abid lbw b Woakes ..................................... 5 Babar run out ........................................... 80 Hafeez lbw b Woakes ................................ 0 Sarfraz run out ......................................... 97 Malik c Rashid b Rashid ............................ 4 Ali c Stokes b Willey ................................ 22 Wasim c Buttler b Woakes ..................... 25 Hasan c Willey b Woakes .......................... 11 Shaheen not out ........................................ 19 Hasnain st Buttler b Rashid .................. 28 Extras (lb3, w3) ........................................... 6 Total (46.5 overs) .................................. 297 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-6, 3-6, 4-152, 5-189, 6-193, 7-232, 8-250, 9-250 Bowling: Woakes 10-2-54-5; Willey 9-155-1; Curran 6-0-40-0; Stokes 4-0-28-0; Ali 10-0-63-0; Rashid 7.5-0-54-2 England beat Pakistan by 54 runs EOIN MORGAN has hailed his one-day kings for completing the perfect World Cup preparation.
Now England must axe two players to arrive at a 15-strong squad. And skipper men in the next few days but those guys, given the nature of highlevel sport with injuries and illness, will be called upon in the World Cup.
“I’m very proud of the guys and the way they have performed throughout the series.” ENGLAND will go bounding into the World Cup on the back of a 4-0 whitewash and a five-star performance from Chris Woakes.
The leader of England’s attack signed off the final official ODI before the tournament opener against South Africa with 5-54 in a 54-run win at Headingley.
They are taking on a home World Cup as unquestionably the team to beat and the red-hot favourites with players like Woakes, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and skipper Eoin Morgan in irresistible form.
Far from tensing and tightening up as the tournament has grown closer, this England team continue to expand their games and their potential in a way that can only bode well for success.
There was a rare blast of sunshine when Jos Buttler finished the game with a stumping – but Woakes shone brightest of all to claim his third fivewicket haul as Pakistan were shoved aside with ruthless efficiency.
Chasing is the preferred way for teams to go, but Morgan chose to bat first to replicate what will happen if they lose the toss in the World Cup.
There was no giant century from one of England’s batting heroes, but through Root (below) and Morgan they scored more than enough to give the bowlers plenty to defend. And that is where the eyes are when it comes to World Cup selection.
With another rotated team, David Willey and Tom Curran were given a final chance to battle it out for the final seam bowling slot ahead of the squad announcement tomorrow morning.
There can be no doubting Woakes’ position though, even if he was polite enough to suggest he did as he said: “I’m glad that I’ve put a performance in today, five-fors don’t come around often in ODI cricket.
“It is a shame you can’t name a squad of 16. Whoever misses out will be unfortunate but that is the nature of it.
“Until you hear you’re in the squad from the selectors’ mouths you’re still on edge.
“Confidence is high across the squad. Competition for places is there, which pushes this team.
“We never settle for what we’ve got, we are always pushing for more.”
England have shown they have all bases covered when it comes to batting and bowling – but three pieces of high-quality fielding also showed that they are no longer let down in that department these days.
Adil Rashid pulled off two of them when he ran out Babar Azam for 80 with an incredible ‘no-look’ flick onto the stumps before taking an acrobatic one-handed diving catch to get Shoaib Malik.
Buttler produced the other moment of magic when he stuck out a boot to stop a late cut and then had the presence of mind to run out Sarfaraz Ahmed for 97.