Date-stamped : 21 Aug2000 - 14:23
3 March 1996

25th ODI: England v Pakistan, Match Report

Christopher Martin-Jenkins

<b>World Cup: England gain respect after forcing best from Pakistan</b>

England`s reward for being both the least successful and the least
impressive of the four qualifiers is a quarter-final against Sri Lanka
in Faisalabad on Saturday after Group B in the World Cup finally
sorted itself out yesterday.

Pakistan`s prize for winning their third match out of four is a
journey to India, which politicians have prevented them from making
for the last seven years and which they would have preferred to avoid
if possible.

Any temptation to relax and allow England the chance to travel to
India instead was firmly resisted, a matter which had never been in
doubt despite a newspaper report to the contrary in which their
manager, Intikhab Alam, was liberally misquoted.

National pride and cricketing common sense demanded instead that
Pakistan should play to their potential and, to the un- inhibited
delight of 32,000 excited but disciplined spectators at the National
Stadium in Karachi, they overcame even an improved England performance
to defeat them with 14 balls and seven wickets in hand.

It was England`s eighth successive defeat against Test-class
opposition in one-day internationals since January and though it may
be for only one more match, The Management will probably ask for a
replacement batsman to be sent out to Pakistan today, because of
another hamstring injury to Neil Fairbrother.

This is a morning on which to praise Pakistan

If they do, the choice ought to be Nasser Hussain or Alan Wells, one
of whom should probably have been here in the first place.  They may
feel obliged to call on Mark Ramprakash again, but there is a
precedent for going outside the original 18 names submitted to Pilcom,
the organising committee, Australia having chosen Jason Gillespie, the
young South Australian who was not on their original list, for Craig
McDermott.

This, meanwhile, is a morning on which to praise Pakistan, not to bury
England who at least made a respectable total yesterday and who could
yet win three games and the World Cup.

Pakistan themselves achieved that sort of miraculous bouleversement
four years ago, but it is much more likely that they will be reaching
a second successive final than England.

Confidence and morale are high in Pakistan now, on the field and off
it.  The administrative arrangements for an important match in what
has so recently been such a volatile city were faultless and in Javed
Miandad`s last big game on his native ground it was highly appropriate
that he should have been batting at the other end when Inzamam-ul-Haq
produced the last of several brutal straight drives to complete
Pakistan`s smooth progress towards a target of 250.

England`s total, after winning the toss on a bare and flawless pitch
of baked grey clay was, in captain Wasim Akram`s estimation, at least
20 runs short of setting his batsmen a really serious challenge.

It was Smith who took the sword to the new white ball

At 134 for no wicket halfway through their overs, England had been
admirably placed to make something close to 300, but they fell away
against a combination no more deadly than Aamir Sohail, the man of the
match, and Salim Malik. Had it not been for another cool and classy
innings by Graham Thorpe, all the good work by the latest opening
combination of Mike Atherton and Robin Smith might have gone to waste.

The fact remains that nine wickets fell for 102 once Smith, who batted
with a runner for the last 20 runs of his partnership because of cramp
and later left the field after only four overs, had driven Salim to
long-off in the 29th over.

For that the major credit was due to Mushtaq Ahmed and Waqar Younis.
Both had been made uncomfortably aware in their opening spells of how
little margin there was for error on a pitch so slow and easy that a
Test match might have been played here for 10 days without a result.

It was Smith who took the sword to the new white ball, Atherton to the
leg-breaks and googlies of Mushtaq; the latter in a deliberate attempt
to knock him off his length at once.  Both the openers needed runs for
their personal well-being, quite apart from the needs of the side.
Smith, for reasons mainly but not entirely of injury, was playing his
first match of the tournament and there was every bit as good a case
for his doing so at number five, in lieu of the disappointing
Fairbrother, allowing Alec Stewart to open with Atherton.

In the event Stewart at his most fluent would not have hit the ball so
hard as Smith, who pulled Waqar for six in the fourth over and twice
square-cut Wasim Akram for four in the ninth, forcing Wasim round the
wicket with an illogical six-three offside field.  Thereafter the
initiative was with the batsmen, more obviously so still when Atherton
twice hit bold strokes over the infield in taking nine off Mushtaq`s
first over.

Despite Thorpe`s invention and aggressive running, the eventual 249
was clearly insufficient

Three quick wickets changed the game.  No sooner had Smith holed out
than Graeme Hick, who had an unfortunate game, moved down the pitch to
drive, missed and was stumped.  In Sohail`s next over of undemanding
left-arm spin, Atherton tried to cut a ball which came in with the arm
and also missed.

The slide was accelerated by Mushtaq who, having been struck for 39
off five overs in his first spell, responded with three for 14 in his
second.  Fairbrother clipped him to midwicket, Russell pushed back a
return catch and Reeve was utterly defeated by the googly.

Despite Thorpe`s invention and aggressive running, the eventual 249
was clearly insufficient. Sohail flailed the ball through the off-side
with a squash player`s wristy strength and his cultured left- handed
partner, Saeed Anwar, introduced himself to England with panache after
85 internationals against other attacks in which he has already made
eight hundreds, as many as Miandad in 231.

Richard Illingworth broke their fluent stand at 81 in the 16th over
when Sohail hit him to mid-on and though Ijaz Ahmed picked up runs
with equal facility there was a short period when Illingworth and
Reeve managed to slow the rate sufficiently to keep everyone guessing
as to the result.

Two expensive overs by Hick broke that spell and in the 12 overs
between the dismissals of Anwar and Ijaz -both caught behind driving
at Cork - Pakistan added 75. There was no doubt after that who would
be going where.

<b>Man of the match:</b> Aamir Sohail

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk)

<END> Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com).