A fantastic maiden ODI century from James Vince helped England sail through a difficult chase against Pakistan in Edgbaston on Tuesday as they completed an incredible 3-0 sweep over the visitors.
Despite missing multiple first-choice players, England pulled off an emphatic whitewash over the visitors, who were considered by many as favourites heading into the series.
This, thanks largely on the day to outstanding innings under pressure from Vince as he struck 102 runs off 95 balls and aided England’s quest to inch past Pakistan’s 331/9. Vince’s memorable first ODI hundred was backed up superbly by all-rounder Lewis Gregory, who made a 69-ball 77 batting at No.7. He stitched an exceptional partnership of 129 runs with Vince for the sixth wicket.
So good was the impact of Vince’s knock and the stand with Gregory that even when those two fell, England kept their noses ahead and eventually reached the goal post. The lower-order batsmen Craig Overton (18*) and Brydon Carse (12*) took their team home unbeaten.
It wasn’t that Vince and Gregory were the only heroes of the chase, though, as opening batsman Phil Salt (37 off 22 balls) and No.3 Zak Crawley (39 off 34) made important contributions in the early part of the innings. Their quickfire knocks gave England momentum, ensured that the asking rate never goes beyond reach and Vince and the rest have a foundation to build their innings upon.
Pakistan will feel heavily let down by their bowling unit. All of their bowlers, including lead pacers Shaheen Afridi (0/78), Hasan Ali (1/69), proved expensive on the day. Haris Rauf ended with a four-fer, but it wasn’t of much value for Pakistan since he went for over seven and over in his nine-over spell of 4/65. The case was similar for wrist-spinner Shadab Khan, who did pick up a couple of wickets in his 10-over spell of 2/61, but couldn’t provide Pakistan the control they so badly needed through the middle-overs.
Earlier on, an outstanding hundred from captain Babar Azam (158 off 139 balls) and half-centuries from Imam-ul-Haq (56) and Mohammad Rizwan (74) allowed Pakistan to recover from their horrible batting collapses in the last two matches and post a challenging total of 331/9. The visitors might have reached even beyond that had their lower-order not stuttered. But it was still a score they would’ve settled for at the halfway mark, considering the previous games and how well England had bowled in the first half of the innings.
Saqib Mahmood (3/60) was once amongst the wickets for England, but the biggest plus for the hosts was right-arm quick Bryon Carse as he picked up a five-fer (5/61), including the wickets of Babar and Rizwan – Pakistan’s two best players.
England added 10 more points to their kitty in the ICC Super League, taking the whole of 30 points on offer from this series and thus dispelling any doubts over the quality of their bench strength. For Pakistan, the series was a grim reminder of their issues across all departments.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 331/9 in 50 overs (Azam 158, Rizwan 78; Carse 5/61, Mahmood 3/60) lost to England 332/7 in 48 overs (Vince 102, Gregory 77; Rauf 4/65, Khan 2/61) by 3 wickets.
