England v Pakistan, 3rd ODI - 5 Talking Points

The England vs Pakistan 3^rd ODI at Trent Bridge, Nottingham witnessed some marvelous cricket. With this win, they earned an unassailable 3-0 lead in the 5-ODI series. To start with Eoin Morgan won the toss and decided to bat first. Though his decision didn’t prove to be right immediately but after Jason Roy’s dismissal in the 6th over things turned around. Alex Hales was batting at some other level and the others around him also capitalized with the waves he was sending around. England posted 444/3 in 50 overs. Pakistan got nowhere close and lost the match by 169 runs.

1. Hale storm:

On the third ball that he faced on Tuesday Alex Hales set the tone for the knock with a solid back foot punch of Hasan Ali. There was no stopping him thereafter as he went on to almost murder most of the Pakistani bowler. Hales reached his half century almost run-a-ball in 55 balls but accelerated after that to get to his hundred from just 83 balls. He didn’t stop there and once he got to his 150 he was in sight for the first double ton and even Rohit Sharm’s record for that matter.

It wasn’t a flawless knock; he had his share of luck. He had a life on 72 when Wahab Riaz had him caught at deep square leg but the TV umpire intervened to call it a no-ball. He made Wahab pay for it and scored 44 runs against the left-arm pacer. While he was on 117 Yasir Shah produced another chance, all Azhar Ali placed at covers had to do was to hold on to the catch but he couldn’t and Hales stayed. He finally departed for 171 after hitting 22 fours and 4 sixes; the highest individuals ODI score by an English batsman.

2. Buttler muscles the fastest fifty:

Though the game will be remembered for Hales’ mayhem, it wasn’t without Jos Buttler’s muscle power that England got to 444. The wicketkeeper batsman in his unbeaten 90 made the difference between a 350ish total that England would have managed on the back of Hales’ knock and close to 450 runs that they ended up with. Buttler picked one over of Shoaib Malik to shift gears and hit the offie for 4 sixes. On the last ball of the 42nd over and the 22nd of his inning Buttler got to his half-century, also the fastest by an England player as he beat Paul Collingwood’s record of a 24-ball fifty.

3. Wahab Riaz roast:

Amidst all the joy for the Englishmen, there was one man who had the worst day at the office. Pakistan pacer Wahab Riaz would want to forget the 3rd ODI as soon as possible since it was purely an incident when the day didn’t belong to him. He was plundered for a plenty and when he created wicket-taking opportunities twice, they were off no balls. In his 10 overs he was hit for 110 runs and he had no success whatsoever. With that he recorded the second most expensive bowling figures in ODI cricket and the worst by a Pakistani bowler.

4. England post the highest ODI total:

Powered by Hales’ century, Buttler’s fastest fifty, Joe Root’s 85 and skipper Eoin Morgan’s 57 the Poms posted 444 runs in their 50 overs for the loss of just 3 wickets. They scored their runs with a run rate of 8.88. This is now the highest score in ODI cricket as England went past Sri Lanka’s 443/9 vs Netherlands. Most of the Pakistan bowlers couldn’t cope up with the catastrophic surge by the English batters all of whom walked out to bat with similar intentions and intent. Wahab had a really bad day and the Pakistani fielders having another sloppy day on the field, dropping catches and misfielding around made matters only worse

5. Mohammad Amir’s 22-ball fifty:

Pakistan’s reply to 444 didn’t have much to talk about apart from Mohammad Amir who came in to bat at no.11 when there were hardly any hopes left in the chase but swung his bat around to score a half-century. Amir had his share of fun with the bat and scored 58 runs the highest score by a No. 11 in One-Day Internationals. He faced 12 balls from Adil Rashid and hit him for four sixes and two boundaries. For Pakistan opener Sharjeel Khan also scored 58 but there was no effort that could match either of Hales, Buttler or Rott’s knocks and that meant they were never actually in the race. Chris Woakes was the pick of the bowlers for England as he picked a 4-wicket haul in his 5.4 overs.