England outplay Pakistan cruising to a 48 run win

The hosts were in dire danger of missing out of the Super 8 stage. England turned in a lion hearted performance to bring them back in the hunt. This match was played on the same pitch as South Africa and Scotland did. So the pitch and conditions tempted Younis Khan to put England into bat. England lost Bopara in the very second over. Pieterson who missed out the opening match came at No.3 position. England never looked back again. Wright and Pieterson took the charge on Pakistan giving England a dream start. Wright was severe off Yasir Arafat and he powered to 34 runs in mere 16 balls. Gul got his yorker right and cleaned him up. This dismissal hardly deterred England. The promising Owais Shah continued the good work with the rampaging Pieterson. Afridi briefly threatened to bring down the run flow. Both the batsman kept the going smooth though with big hits once in a while. England always looked commanding until Gul came back with his gem of a delivery. Pakistan fielded horribly fumbling chances, missing run outs,nothing was going for them. England just when looked like would go on to make 200 got a jolt from Saeed Ajmal removing Collingwood and Pieterson off successive deliveries. Maschereunus and Foster ran in hard and set the Pakistani’s a challenging 185/5.Pakistan had only themselves to blame giving in a below par infact disastrous performance with an over hyped bowling attack which surprisingly didn’t find a place for Tanvir.





The match was set up for an interesting chase but definitely the balance tilted in advantage of the hosts . In came the 19 year old Shehzad and Salman Butt to opent he innings. Maschereunus was intentionally was used by the England captain due to lack of his pace on the ball to bowl the first over. Shehzad was out caught by Collingwood in the opening over. Butt looked in good touch and the new batsman Akmal was never allowed to settle through. It required just 2 balls for Stuart Broad and England to send them back packing to the pavilion. Malik and Younis were bailing out Pakistan from a hapless 41/3 but probably at a slower rate which in the end cost heavily for Pakistan. Malik didn’t do justice to his ability and got out to Luke Wright at a crucial juncture Younis waged a lone battle and he was regularly in short of partners. Good consistent bowling and Pakistan’s shocking shot selection helped England move ahead(almost) to the Super 8 stage with a 48 run “super” win.The latest news is that