Nottingham: Andrew Strauss survived an early scare to score 78 and Ian Bell hammered an unbeaten 86 to guide England over Pakistan by eight wickets and its first limited-overs triumph in 11 games.
The England captain shared a century partnership with Bell as England easily passed Pakistan's 235-8 with 22 balls to spare at Trent Bridge on Friday.
Kevin Pietersen made 41 not out and struck the winning boundary as England shrugged off its poor early form by hitting 237-2.
Having lost 5-0 to Sri Lanka and three times to Pakistan in One-Day and Twenty20 games, England can tie the series at 2-2 by winning the fifth and final ODI on Sunday at Edgbaston.
The opening game in Cardiff was declared a no result because of rain.
"It's been a while since Belfast so we're really pleased to put on a good performance," said Strauss, referring to a One-Day victory over Ireland in June. There are still slight errors but overall it was a better performance and we're starting to turn things around. The guys are going to enjoy it tonight, there's no doubt about that."
Strauss was on five when Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was convinced he caught him at first slip. Strauss refused to move, however, convinced the ball had not carried to him and the umpires, having seen TV replays, gave him not out.
"I turned around and saw it and I was certain in my mind it did not carry," Strauss said.
Inzamam said his players celebrated because they all thought he had taken it cleanly.
"We thought the ball landed in my fingers but it's difficult for the umpires to see," he said, "That's why it was referred to the third umpire."
When it was announced that Strauss was not out, chants of 'cheat, cheat' from the England fans rained down on Inzamam, who already faces two disciplinary charges relating to a ball-tampering ruling at the end of the fourth Test at The Oval.
He praised England for a much-improved performance at Trent Bridge.
"I think 270-plus is a good score on this wicket but overall England are playing better," he said. "Their bowlers played very well."
PAGE_BREAK
Having escaped, Strauss went on to hit 10 fours in his 88-ball innings although he lost opening partner Ed Joyce with England on 38.
Replacing the out-of-form Marcus Trescothick, who had been dropped for the first time after 123 One-Day appearances, Joyce edged a catch to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal on 13.
Bell struck Abdul Razzaq for three fours in a row and, although Inzamam kept changing his bowling attack to try and unsettle them, he and Strauss had few scares as they compiled a partnership of 110 in 20 overs.
It was finally broken when off-break bowler Mohammad Hafeez, the seventh bowler used by Pakistan, bowled Strauss round his legs with England on 148.
Strauss hit 10 fours and, by the time the captain and opener was out, his team needed 88 off 20.1 overs.
Bell moved on to 76 before he survived a chance, Razzaq dropping a knee-high catch off his own bowling.
Inzamam won the toss for the fourth time in a row and this time decided to bat first in the day/night game.
Before the lights came on, Razzaq hit five sixes in an unbeaten 75 to lift Pakistan from 117-6 to post a challenging score.
Left arm spinner Michael Yardy marked his debut with 3-24 to spark a mid-innings Pakistan collapse.
But Razzaq attacked the England bowling in the closing overs scoring his runs off only 72 balls. His five sixes all came in the last two overs as he and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who made 9, shared an unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 70.
In a disastrous next-to-last over of the innings from Sajid Mahmood, Razzaq hit two sixes and a four and the bowler gave away four wides and four leg byes for a total of 25 runs.
Razzaq then hit three more sixes in the final over from Jon Lewis.
A fourth-wicket stand of 74 between Inzamam (47) and Mohammed Yousuf (29) enabled Pakistan to recover from 17-2 and 41-3.
But three wickets fell for only two runs in two overs from spinners Yardy and James Dalrymple as Pakistan then slipped to 117-6.
Comments
0 comment