ENGvsPAK 2nd ODI

ENGLAND VS PAKISTAN AS IT HAPPENED

What a game of cricket it has been. If it is the highlight of how the world cup is going to be we are in for a show. Fell short by 12 runs due to some mistakes but still it was a very good chase against a team like England.

What a fight back by Pakistani team in reply to a mammoth total of 374. To be very honest i was expecting Pakistan to fall short by nearly 200 runs but they still managed to take it close and what fight it was. I am impressed considering batting and chasing are not our strongest suit.

First of all let's begin with Fakhar who has been nothing short of phenomenal and is the only modern day opener in this Pakistan side. 

His numbers tell the whole story and he is capable of  counter attacking which most of our players are not able to do.

Fakhar Zaman's average against the top-five teams in ODIs is 47.47 and strike-rate 91.28. Perhaps the only batsman in this team who bats according to the modern demands and does it against tough opponents too. #EngvPak

— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) May 11, 2019

 And then there is this guy who completely destroyed our death bowling like it was a joke. Scored the 2nd fastest hundred for a England player in one day internationals. For me it was his inning that changed the game. His inning looked like this:
16441...13111.41..12.12.66.....4...611621622226262644.1
PURE DESTRUCTION

Finally coming down to Faheem Ashraf . He has been absolutely terrible.
Let me ask you a question, tell me something more useless than Yasir Shah in ODIs. 

P.s. you can't choose Faheem Ashraf.

Faheem Ashraf's bowling in his last 7 ODIs:

• Wickets: 1 
• Runs conceded: 304 
• Overs: 55.5 
• Average: 304 
• Strike-rate: 335

We need an alternative ASAP and we have one in sight. If only selection committee might look at him.

Pakistan need to send an SOS to Aamer Yamin. You need a fast-bowling all-rounder in England and he seems to be the only replacement for Faheem Ashraf, who in the last eight ODIs has an average of 10.00 with bat and 303.00 with ball. #EngvPak

— Mazher Arshad (@MazherArshad) May 11, 2019

Faheem Ashraf in PSL vs Faheem Ashraf in International pic.twitter.com/ZS09HfTzsg

— R. (@AjeebBaatHay) May 11, 2019

WHAT WENT WRONG?

Pakistan was on the brink of a historic run chase and was on track too. At one point it was 60 needed of 40 balls which is do able, then what went wrong:

• Pakistan's death bowling: Pakistan was really bad at the death and gave Buttler a chance to light up the fireworks and he did. 
• England's death bowling: England was on target and had a game plan they bowled yorker length to the right handed batsmen and short to left handed batsmen.
• Pakistan didn't have someone like Buttler: England scored 70+ runs in the final 5 overs which was made possible due to Jos Buttler and when Pakistan was in the same situation, even though the required runrate was low, they still could not manage to hit many boundaries.
• Losing wickets at crucial time: Pakistan has made a knack of losing crucial wickets at bad time. yesterday it was Fakhar and Babar immediately after leaving two new batsmen on the pitch and then Asif, Imad and Faheem all lost the plot at the end and failed to do the job which is hitting. Well atleast Asif contributed with a 50 which was good.

One of the major differences between the 2 teams today:

England's bowlers were regularly bowling yorkers.
Pakistani bowlers were only dreaming of bowling yorkers.#ENGvPAK

— Saj Sadiq (@Saj_PakPassion) May 11, 2019

In the end there are alot of positives to take from the game and it gives us hope that our batting can step up when needed. Let's see if they can do better in the series and the world cup which is right on the edge.