New-look England ease to victory against Pakistan
LESS than 24 hours after training together for the first and only time, an emergency England side made light of chaotic circumstances to thrash Pakistan in the first one-day international at Cardiff.
With 16 first-choice players in isolation following a Covid-19 outbreak, and a handful of others out injured, a shadow squad was scrambled to contest the Royal London Series and responded with a magnificent nine-wicket win.
Lancashire seamer Saqib Mahmood seized the unexpected opportunity 10 months on from his last international appearance, taking two wickets in the first over of the day and finishing with careerbest figures of 4-42 as the tourists crumbled to 141 all out. The somerset pair of Lewis Gregor (1-11 in
four overs) and Craig Overton (2-23 in 6.2 overs) also impressed.
A slender chase was devoured with unerring ease, Test regular Zak Crawley posting 58 not out in his first white-ball innings for England and Dawid Malan effortlessly compiling an unbeaten 68 as they needed less than 22 overs of the allocated 50.
Five debuts were handed out before the toss, with Crawley, Phil Salt, John Simpson, Gregory and Brydon Carse all inducted in a busy pre-match huddle, as England fielded a side boasting just 128 ODI caps. Of those, 98 belonged to stand-in captain Ben Stokes, rushing his recovery from injury to fill the leadership void.
Another six came from Mahmood, previously a dressing room rookie but now the side’s third most experienced performer.
England would have settled for a solid first over from him, but he produced a spectacular one. His first ball cramped Imamul-Haq just enough to have the opener lbw on DRS.