After a disappointing loss in the first ODI against England at Cardiff, Pakistan had a lot to prove at the Lord's. Most of their players came under intense scrutiny owing to their dismal performance in the 1st ODI where they went down without a fight. On a cold rainy morning, Pakistan won the toss and opted to field first. It was always a good toss to win with the conditions being suitable for bowling.
Hassan Ali and Shaheen Afridi proved their captain's decision right by dismissing last game's winners, Crawley and Malan for a duck. England were down but not out. Salt and Vince carried on batting the English way, the same brand of cricket that we have been used to by England for the last 6 years by going hammer and tonks after the bowling without worrying about the fall of wickets. They scored runs at a brisk pace and took the game away from Pakistan. Both of them got their 50s after which Babar introduced Shakeel which accounted for Salt's wicket. Babar missed a trick here by not introducing a spinner early for Salt who generally struggles against spin. As they say 1 wicket brings 2, Vince followed Salt back to the pavilion kudos to a wonderful delivery. Vince tried to break the shackles after being bogged down by Shadab but couldn't succeed. Hassan Ali was then brought on to dismiss Stokes and he didn't disappoint either by bowling out Stokes with a great delivery. He then accounted for Simpson and Overton as well. The 'generator celebration' was out and Pakistan had the upper hand. England were 7 down for 160 with a better part of 20 overs to play. Pakistan let the momentum slip again as Gregory and Carse started the counter attack and took England to a position from where they could defend this target. Hassan Ali came back to clean up the tail and ended up with 5 wickets thereby getting his name on the Lord's Honours Board.
Pakistan needed 248 runs to win in 47 overs. The chase always seemed tricky with the ball moving. This was proved in the 2nd over itself when Gregory got Imam feeling for a ball outside the offstump which took an edge through to the keeper. Babar played some exquisite shots in his short stay but he missed an incoming delivery from Saqib Mahmood and was trapped in front of middle. He ended up wasting a review as well. Rizwan, who is in the form of his life didn't hang around much as he was dismissed pretty cheaply. Pakistan were in deep trouble with 3 wickets down in the powerplay. Fakhar had his feet in mud as he couldn't move them and Overton put him out of his misery. Fakhar wasted 45 balls for scoring a mere 10 runs which neither helped him nor Pakistan. Saud Shakeel put up a stern resistance but had no support whatsoever from his teammates. Maqsood and Shadab got starts but handed their wickets away on a platter to the English side. Hassan Ali tried to play one of those PSL innings where he started going after the bowlers. He hit a few boundaries but chasing the target was always going to be an uphill task. Once Brydon Carse picked up his wicket, it was just a matter of time before England wrapped up the series and went on to win the game by 52 runs.
This series showed us a couple of things like the depth in English Cricket and the lack of application in Pakistan Cricket. Playing PSL on flat decks will do them no good in SENA conditions. They need to get their acts together before the final game to salvage something out of this series.
