Pakistan vs England, 1st ODI at Abu Dhabi: 5 Talking Points of the Match

It seems the English woes in the Middle East are not ending soon. After being beaten by the Pakistanis in the Test Series comprehensively, the English ODI team led by Eoin Morgan were completely outplayed in the first ODI which the hosts won easily with 6 wickets to spare.

This was another disappointing outing for the touring English side who looked out of sorts right from the first ball and were bundled out for just 216 batting first. In reply, Pakistan were clinical with their performance. Mohammed Hafeez played wonderfully to complete his 11th ODI century and helped Pakistan take a lead in the ODI series. This was the last game for veteran Younis Khan who scored 9 in his last ODI innings.

Here are the 5 important talking points of the match:

1. England’s disastrous start:

Batting first, England were reeling at 14-3 with 2 of their top 3 not even able to open their account. The Pakistani new ball bowlers, the tall and intimidating Mohammed Irfan and the accurate Anwar Ali bowled superbly up front and made inroads into the English batting from where England could never recover. Jason Roy and Joe Root were gone for a duck while Alex Hales made 10 runs.

2. Morgan and Taylor’s rebuilding:

At 14-3, the England captain Eoin Morgan and James Taylor got together and played some good cricket. They kept rotating the strike. especially Morgan brilliantly took the attack to the opposition and displayed his skill by playing shots all round the park. They added 133 runs for the 4th wicket. Morgan made 76 runs and Taylor made 62 but once both of their wickets were taken by Shoaib Malik, England couldn’t get the runs going and were bowled out for 216.

3. Pakistan’s fielding:

Good fielding is not something which one associates with the Pakistani team, but today was something different as the Pakistanis saved runs, took catches and their fielding played an important part in England’s dismal score. They affected 2 Run-outs and took their half chances convincingly.

4. Mohammed Hafeez’s wonderful century:

Mohammed Hafeez showed his class today and completed his first ton against England. He scored the winning runs as well and batted intelligently in the middle overs. He played the anchor role to perfection and was involved in crucial partnerships with Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam. Hafeez scored an unbeaten 102 from 130 balls in which he hit 10 fours and 1 six.

5. Azam-Hafeez Partnership:

When Babar Azam joined Mohammed Hafeez in the middle, Pakistan were in a spot of bother as the scoreboard read 111-4. Reece Topley was bowling wonderfully and had taken 3 out of the 4 Pakistani wickets. But these 2 ensured that Pakistan chased the target without any more loss of wickets. Babar Azam was the aggressor in the unbeaten partnership of 106. He made a run a ball 62 with 2 fours and 4 sixes to his name while Hafeez carried on playing the anchor role with perfection.

Finally, England were outplayed in all departments of the game in this match and they would like to change their plans before the second match starts or else Pakistan would clinch the series easily.