BAIR POWER
Jonny’s ton good in England romp
JONNY BAIRSTOW pulled Pakistan apart with an awesome array of power hitting to fire out another World Cup warning.
His seventh one-day hundred was full of flicks, sweeps and pulls over the legside boundary and while the fans couldn’t get enough, the bowlers had their fill of it.
Jos Buttler wasn’t even in the team yet the clean hitting remained in a six-wicket win that brought England the fifth-highest successful run chase of all time with more than five overs to spare.
A target of 359 should take some doing but openers Bairstow and Jason Roy made it more of a formality as the hosts went 2-0 up in the five-match series.
“I was really pleased with said Bairstow.
“Coming back into English conditions after being in India you want to hit the ground running. It was good fun and it was nice to make the most of it.
“Jason and I had a bit of a laugh out there and really enjoyed each other’s success. Hopefully we’ll get to keep doing that.”
Bearing in mind Bairstow also kept wicket, this really was a stunning effort although when he it,” eventually chopped on to Junaid Khan for 128, he was so annoyed with himself he lashed out and hit the stumps before walking off. It would be a shame for him to be penalised too much for the action but match referee Richie Richardson may have no choice. Bairstow added: “When you get into the position to make a big hundred for your country, you get frustrated when you get out .” Roy and Bairstow have opened together in only 26 matches but have seven partnerships of over 100 together, a record for England.
This one was worth 159 by the time Roy was caught at cover. It should have been stopped sooner
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6 when Shaheen Afridi dropped an easy chance with Roy on 21. He went on to make 76 from 55 balls.
Joe Root made 43 before being caught which cleared the way for Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Eoin Morgan to take the chase home.
With the ball, England badly missed Adil Rashid as much for his ability to get through the overs quickly as his wicket-taking skills.
As a result it is hard to see how Morgan won’t end up missing the next game at Trent Bridge if he gets a second over-rate penalty within 12 months for the four hours it took to bowl 50 overs.
Imam-ul-Haq hit a brilliant 151 to make it a tough day for the England bowlers battling it out for a World Cup spot.
David Willey went for 86 from his 10 overs and most noticeably Joe Denly was given just one over that cost nine. (inset) PAKISTAN ENGLAND