Eng v Pak 2nd ODI Preview – Pakistan hope to make a comeback

England rebounded strongly after a draw in the Test series to gain an early advantage beating the visitors comfortably in the first ODI at Southampton. Half-centuries for Jason Roy and Joe Root ensured that England would make light work of a target of 261. Despite all the rain delays, England never had problems in chasing the target which was revised down twice first to 252 after an initial delay and ultimately to 149 as per DLS par score which gave them an easy 44 run win and take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Going into the 2nd ODI which takes place at Lord’s, the momentum clearly is in the favor of the hosts. But, making remarkable comebacks is the is a born habit of the Pakistan team. Therefore, despite a relatively one-sided game at The Rose Bowl, one can expect an evenly fought contest in the upcoming game. Also, the game is anticipated to take place without any rain interference with the weather expected to bright and sunny in London.

England:

The Englishmen had a satisfying outing in the last game. While the batting order did not get a thorough opportunity to have a go at the Pakistani bowler, the bowlers looked in good touch and bowled economically while taking wickets. Jason Roy continued his wonderful limited overs form and kept the opposition bowlers at bay. It was mainly due to his attacking start that England held an upper hand right from the beginning in the chase. Joe Root was another star performer. The Yorkshire man looked in great nick before getting run out.

Both batsmen along with Alex Hales, who had an off day in the last game, will be the key to England batting success.  In the bowling department, barring Moeen Ali every one return with a wicket. Chris Woakes was excellent in his spell of 1/43 while Mark Wood consistently clocked around the 90 miles mark. Liam Plunkett too played a good supportive role. Adil Rashid, who took two wickets, and Moeen Ali will have the responsibility of keeping things tight in the middle overs.

Probable XI:

Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett.

Pakistan:

The Pakistanis might have felt that they could have performed a notch better than they did in the last game. The batsman threw their wickets after getting starts. Opener Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Nawaz all began well but could not make any huge impact with the bat.

The ineffectiveness kept shifting the momentum towards England. Considering the kind of batting strength the opposition possess, anything less that 300 is always an under-par score if batting first. But, if the visitor aim to post such big totals then these players must click.

It’s always easy to point out the negatives when a team loses but with Pakistan the case is different. The bowlers also had a sort of off day; the reason – sloppy fielding. Jason Roy was dropped twice inside 20 overs, first in the 6thover and then in the 18th over. Later Morgan was also dropped once 28th over. All this happened before rains arrived, Had these opportunities been taken, maybe there could have a slight chance of a different result.

Playing XI: (As per Furqan Bhatti, Pakistan Journalist)

Sharjeel Khan, Azhar Ali (c), Sami Aslam (Mohammad Hafeez OUT), Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Yasir Shah (Mohammad Nawaz OUT), Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali (Umar Gul OUT), Mohammad Amir.

Match starts at 15:00 IST

Telecast on Star Sports

Stats:

• Jos Buttler is 22 runs short of reaching the 2000 run mark in ODIs.
• Eoin Morgan has scored 4,841 runs and needs another 159 runs to become the third England player to reach the 5,000 runs milestone.
• Wahab Riaz has taken 94 wickets and needs 6 more to reach the 100 wickets milestone.