November 26, 2024

England v Pakistan: second ODI – live!

Phil Salt #PhilSalt

9.41am EDT 09:41

30th over: England 175-7 (Gregory 11, Carse 5) Hasan is still on, and why not with four wickets to his name – but Gregory is composed enough to spot a short one and crack it through the covers for four. And then he does it again! The plot could do with a twist. And that’s drinks, with Pakistan well on top.

Updated at 9.45am EDT

9.38am EDT 09:38

29th over: England 164-7 (Gregory 2, Carse 3) Shadab is still on, mixing dots with singles, and England are in a hole. They will be doing very well if they make it to 47 overs.

9.36am EDT 09:36

28th over: England 161-7 (Gregory 1, Carse 1) It’s a tough moment for Brydon Carse, coming out for his first international innings at a time when he must have barely put his pads on, but he keeps calm and dabs Hasan to third man for a single.

9.33am EDT 09:33

Wicket! Overton c Rizwan b Hasan 0 (England 160-7)

Another one! Overton gets a nick, the finger stays down, but Pakistan review and they’re absolutely right.

9.31am EDT 09:31

Wicket!! Simpson b Hasan 17 (England 160-6)

Hasan’s on fire, spearing a full-length nip-backer through the gate and seeing it thud into middle stump. You can’t blame John Simpson, who played a couple of good strokes and didn’t hang around, using up only 19 balls. But England are now looking like the makeshift team they are.

Updated at 9.31am EDT

9.27am EDT 09:27

27th over: England 159-5 (Simpson 17, Gregory 1) Shadab is bowling a full length with six men in the ring, and there’s not much England can do about it as they regroup. Lewis Gregory, the cut-price Chris Woakes, gets off the mark with a clip into the leg side.

9.25am EDT 09:25

26th over: England 156-5 (Simpson 15, Gregory 0) Well bowled Hasan Ali, coming back, taking the big wicket and conceding only one off that over. The tale of three trios continues.

Updated at 9.26am EDT

9.21am EDT 09:21

Wicket!! STOKES b Hasan Ali 22 (England 156-5)

Stokes goes for the big yahoo – and misses! The off bail is sent flying and that’s a huge scalp for Hasan Ali.

Ben Stokes is bowled out by Hasan Ali. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Updated at 9.31am EDT

9.19am EDT 09:19

25th over: England 155-4 (Stokes 22, Simpson 14) That narrow escape seems to have done Simpson some good. Facing Shadab, he plays a handsome cover-drive for four, like Jos Buttler in the mirror. Just past the halfway stage, it’s anyone’s game.

Updated at 9.19am EDT

9.15am EDT 09:15

24th over: England 148-4 (Stokes 22, Simpson 7) Shaheen continues and finds the edge, as Simpson plays a tentative push at a ball that’s holding its line – but it flies between the keeper and the only slip, who is wider than usual.

Updated at 9.19am EDT

9.12am EDT 09:12

23rd over: England 143-4 (Stokes 22, Simpson 2) Shadab keeps it tight until his last ball, a long-hop that gets what it deserves as Stokes belts it for four.

Ben Stokes plays a shot. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 9.25am EDT

9.11am EDT 09:11

22nd over: England 137-4 (Stokes 17, Simpson 1) It’s all about Stokes now. Pakistan spring a surprise by bringing back Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Stokes is watchful, classical, driving into the ring, before he cuts for a single to the cover sweeper. Simpson, left-handed like Stokes, is off the mark with a square drive, also for a single.

The bowling today has been a tale of three trios: Shaheen and Hasan Ali were good (2 for 50 off nine overs so far), Faheem and Haris were wayward (0 for 58 off six), and Shadab and Shakeel have been terrific, apart from one ball (2 for 29 off seven).

9.05am EDT 09:05

21st over: England 134-4 (Stokes 15, Simpson 0) So John Simpson comes out for a first international innings at the grand old age of 32. And Shakeel gets past the outside edge again! So that’s a wicket maiden – great stuff.

9.03am EDT 09:03

Wicket!! Vince b Shadab 56 (England 134-4)

Noooo! Vince gets smothered by Shadab, with four dots and a play-and-miss, and ends up playing a nothing shot to a googly and getting bowled. What a shame.

James Vince is bowled out. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Updated at 9.24am EDT

9.02am EDT 09:02

20th over: England 134-3 (Vince 56, Stokes 15) Shakeel blots his copybook with a half-tracker, and Stokes swings it for six into the Mound stand as if this was the World Cup final all over again.

“Thanks for the coverage – excellent as usual,” says Nicholas Butler. Pleasure! “Just wondering regarding the omission of Alex Hales – is the ECB’s mission to develop cricket in England and Wales and to have successful international teams, or is it just to pander to Eoin Morgan’s apparently fragile ego?” Oof.

“Teams across the world seem to have enjoyed great success despite the alleged burden of having Hales in the team, but are we to believe that the England squad is made up of such snowflakes that they will wilt and be unable to perform if Hales is in the squad? If we want to win shouldn’t we have the best players in the team? Shame on the ECB and Ashley Giles for not being able to grow a pair and stand up to the apparently vindictive attitude of Morgan.” That’s a bit harsh, but I agree that it’s gone too far. There should have been a proper process – which would have given Hales a ban, but not as long as the one he has ended up serving.

8.57am EDT 08:57

19th over: England 126-3 (Vince 55, Stokes 8) Straight bat? Stokes brings out the reverse sweep! And it’s a good one, fizzing away for four, and forcing a field change, which then allows an easy two into the covers. And if anyone can persuade Vince to hang in there and get a hundred, Stokes can. This is already Vince’s highest score in ODIs.

8.55am EDT 08:55

18th over: England 119-3 (Vince 54, Stokes 1) Out comes Ben Stokes, to a suitably warm ovation. He tends to start with a straight bat and he gets off the mark with a nice easy push to long-off.

8.53am EDT 08:53

Wicket! Salt b Shakeel 60 (England 118-3)

The frustration tells! Salt goes across to the off to sweep, but the ball comes on a bit quicker and there’s a clink of timber. Well bowled Shakeel, who collects his first wicket – and well played Phil Salt, making a first fine fearless fifty.

Phil Salt is bowled out by Saud Shakeel. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters

Updated at 8.56am EDT

8.50am EDT 08:50

17th over: England 116-2 (Salt 59, Vince 54) Shadab continues and both batsmen are getting frustrated, chipping over the ring without finding the rope. But they’re still running like dervishes and they pick up six off the over.

8.47am EDT 08:47

16th over: England 110-2 (Salt 55, Vince 52) Haris Rauf thinks he’s getting another over, but a late change of heart means it’s spin from both ends, as Saud Shakeel comes on with his slow left-arm. He starts well too, spinning his first ball past Vince’s outside edge and conceding only three.

Updated at 8.48am EDT

8.44am EDT 08:44

15th over: England 107-2 (Salt 53, Vince 51) Time for some spin, in the form of Shadab Khan’s leg-breaks. He manages to put the plug in, conceding just two singles, and may even have Vince dropped by Rizwan behind the stumps – a tough chance that hits the keeper’s pads.

Updated at 8.45am EDT

8.41am EDT 08:41

Here’s Tom Bowtell. “After the papers collectively failed to go with my suggested headline of ‘Harrys and the Henderson’ after the Ukraine match, I hope I will have better luck in flogging ‘Spicy Salt peppers the boundary’. Guardian obviously gets first dibs.” Well Tom, you are one of our more seasoned correspondents.

8.40am EDT 08:40

14th over: England 105-2 (Salt 52, Vince 50) The landmarks are piling up. Salt’s nick also brought up the England hundred, off 13.3 overs. And then Vince plays a flick-cut for four, just over the man at point, to bring up his fifty. Vince took 36 balls, Salt 41, and that’s drinks with England, and the bold type, flying.

8.37am EDT 08:37

Fifty to Salt!

Salt plays one of his worst strokes, a big thick nick off Haris Rauf, but there’s no slip now and it flies away for four. So that’s a first international fifty for Salt, who missed out on debut and didn’t let it bother him in the slightest.

Phil Salt makes a half-century. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Updated at 8.47am EDT

8.34am EDT 08:34

13th over: England 96-2 (Salt 47, Vince 46) Vince, facing Faheem, is on the pull again – and flirting with danger. First he hits the ball well, but only just short of the man at deep square, who can’t handle a half-volley; then he gets a top edge, but it’s four more. Fortune favours the lordly. The last five overs have brought 49 runs, 37 of them to Vince.

8.29am EDT 08:29

12th over: England 84-2 (Salt 46, Vince 35) Vince plays a little dab to third man and does very well to come back for two, which allows him to cut the next ball for a sumptuous four. He’s out of the 20s! The sky is now the limit.

8.26am EDT 08:26

11th over: England 75-2 (Salt 46, Vince 26) Any ball that’s not a four is a victory for Pakistan at the moment, and Faheem manages six of them. He’s bowling cutters and finding the inside edge, if not the outside one.

“Tim,” says Andrew Benton, “You often respond to comments with a ‘Ha!’. Are you limbering up to cover the Olympic weightlifting. I’d have though a ‘Huurrrrgh’ might be better preparation but there’s still a couple of weeks to go …” Ha!

James Vince building a healthy partnership with Salt. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Updated at 8.30am EDT

8.21am EDT 08:21

10th over: England 72-2 (Salt 45, Vince 24) On comes Haris Rauf, the fourth seamer. He’s just seen the third seamer start by dropping short and suffering for it, so he … does the same. Vince plays that lordly pull of his, and that’s the fourth four in four balls. Another short one, but better, sharper, and Salt misses it as his eyes light up. Then Haris bowls a really good ball, a lifter in the corridor, and Salt is relieved to find it sailing over his gloves. But when Haris overpitches, Salt is ready with that cover-blast of his, and he brings up the fifty partnership off just 5.5 overs.

Updated at 8.22am EDT

8.16am EDT 08:16

9th over: England 63-2 (Salt 41, Vince 19) Shaheen gives way to Faheem Ashraf, who starts with a long-hop and pays for it as Salt swats it past midwicket to bring up England’s fifty. A couple of dots, and then Salt bludgeons through the covers. When Faheem bowls an off-cutter, Salt goes hard and gets an inside edge for four more, and then straight-drives for yet another four. That’s eight fours from him already. “He’s a pinch hitter,” says David Lloyd. “A pinch of Salt!”

Updated at 8.16am EDT

8.11am EDT 08:11

8th over: England 47-2 (Salt 25, Vince 19) Vince, not to be outdone, dances down the track at Hasan and off-drives for four. Next he’s expecting a short ball, and it duly arrives, so he pulls it for four, with real authority. And then he nicks one – but gets away with it as his hitting has seen off second slip. “This is proper ODI cricket,” says Dinesh Karthik.

8.06am EDT 08:06

7th over: England 36-2 (Salt 25, Vince 9) Salt, regaining the strike after a lull, decides not to throw the kitchen sink at Shaheen: instead, he steps away to leg and launches the whole kitchen. The stroke is technically a cut, but I’d call it more of a flay. He adds a flick for two. As an understudy, he’s doing his best to make Jason Roy look measured.

Updated at 8.07am EDT

8.01am EDT 08:01

6th over: England 29-2 (Salt 19, Vince 8) Hasan starts his over by going wide outside off and Vince square-drives it for four. There’s a touch of majesty about that, as there so often is with Vince, on his way to another classy 20. He picks up a couple, less regally, off an inside edge, and a quick single off the pads.

Updated at 8.03am EDT

7.57am EDT 07:57

5th over: England 22-2 (Salt 19, Vince 1) So Malan and Crawley, who made 126 between them on Thursday without being out, have made 0 for 2 today. And England have already lost more wickets in this innings than they did in that one. James Vince edges and gets away with it as the ball doesn’t quite carry to Shadab, diving to his left at second slip. Vince pushes a single into the covers, the first run off the bat not made by Salt. Pakistan, so poor on Thursday, are themselves again.

7.53am EDT 07:53

Wicket! Crawley b Shaheen 0 (England 21-2)

Another yorker! And it brushes Crawley’s off stump. That’s a golden duck for the guy who, against Pakistan, is usually England’s golden boy.

Zak Crawley is bowled for a golden duck. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Updated at 7.58am EDT

7.51am EDT 07:51

4th over: England 21-1 (Salt 19, Crawley 0) Salt keeps the strike and he’s still not finding the gaps – so he doubles down, giving Hasan the charge and blasting it back past him, then chipping over mid-on for two. Hasan bowls a no-ball and handles the free hit shrewdly, keeping Salt quiet with a yorker. Hasan likes it so much he tries another yorker, but Salt flicks it for two. He has 19 off 19 and Crawley still hasn’t faced a ball.

Updated at 7.51am EDT

7.46am EDT 07:46

3rd over: England 12-1 (Salt 11, Crawley 0) Before the review, Salt picked up two off his hip, running hard with Crawley as England did on Thursday. After it, undaunted, he keeps going hard at the ball, but finds the fielders in the ring. And he’s dropped at backward point, by Imam-ul-Haq, tipping the ball round the post like Jordan Pickford.

Lord’s, full again for the first time in nearly two years, has got that lovely buzz in the air, as if thousands of people were humming.

7.42am EDT 07:42

Wicket!? Salt given caught behind off Shaheen

Salt pulls again, there’s a noise and Shaheen’s convinced he’s got a nick, so is the umpire… but Salt reviews.

7.40am EDT 07:40

2nd over: England 9-1 (Salt 8, Crawley 0) That was a masterly over from Hasan Ali. Two inside edges, one play-and-miss, and then the tempter, drawing the edge and removing the man most likely to make a big score.

7.39am EDT 07:39

Wicket! Malan c Shadab b Hasan 0 (England 9-1)

Gone for none! Malan goes hard at a full delivery and gives a simple nick to second slip.

Dawid Malan goes for a duck. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

Updated at 7.49am EDT

7.36am EDT 07:36

1st over: England 8-0 (Salt 8, Malan 0) Shaheen Shah Afridi opens the bowling, left-arm fast. Phil Salt got out to him in Cardiff, but he’s not bothered about that. He straight-drives him for four, then plays and misses at the same ball he got out to – and then pulls for four more. That was a great shot, off what was almost a length ball outside off. Salt has a big smile on his face, and a career-best for England.

7.32am EDT 07:32

“In a strange way,” says Tom van der Gucht, “I’ve often fantasised about the England team being laid low by some kind of illness on the eve of a match only for a team of reserves to be called up. I was slightly disappointed by the team that was selected as I’d always hoped there would be a bit more nostalgic drama with old war horses called out of retirement to buoy up callow young guns – a bit like Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman alongside the youngster in Unforgiven … Darren Stevens, Bopara, Cook, Finn, Batty … Instead we got a ruthlessly professional unit who seemed to be well-drilled and understood the assignment.” Most unsporting.

7.29am EDT 07:29

Nasser Hussain is showing us the pitch. “There is some rolled-in grass here, and I do think it’ll do a bit.” His voice turns stern. “Don’t lose wickets in your PowerPlay!” Nasser’s an excellent commentator, but that’s the voice of the 1990s, when England were not very good at one-day cricket. Yes, Pakistan lost too many batters early on in Thursday’s game, but there’s no point in Phil Salt going out there and blocking.

7.23am EDT 07:23

A message from the stands. “The conditions have been 100% playable since 11am,” an MCC member writes. “Inexplicable. Why does cricket do this to itself? It is bright and dry. The crowd is jovial but mystified.”

7.13am EDT 07:13

Teams: no change

England stick with a winning team, as expected, so “they go from 11 changes to none,” as Nasser Hussain puts it. And Pakistan show faith in a losing team.

England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Dawid Malan, 3 Zak Crawley, 4 James Vince, 5 Ben Stokes (capt), 6 John Simpson (wkt), 7 Lewis Gregory, 8 Craig Overton, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Saqib Mahmood, 11 Matt Parkinson.

Pakistan 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Sohaib Maqsood, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Haris Rauf.

7.11am EDT 07:11

Toss: Pakistan win and bowl

Babar Azam calls right and clenches his fist in delight. He’ll have a bowl, as any captain would.

6.54am EDT 06:54

It’s now a 47-over match…

… starting at 12.30pm, all being well, with the toss at 12.10.

6.50am EDT 06:50

The covers are still on, light rain is falling, and it’s clearly going to be a shortened game. Overs begin to be lost if there’s no play by 12 noon, which is now a certainty as they haven’t had the toss yet. Lord’s has good drainage, but this forecast is warning of another two hours’ rain.

6.19am EDT 06:19

It’s all happening: now we have an email. ”Morning Tim.” Morning, Brian Withington. “Surely a record multiple factor for caps for a single player, Ben Stokes (100), versus the rest of the team (20?). Strange days indeed, as someone from Liverpool once sang.” Ha. This squad have been sent to show us roughly how John Lennon would have sounded if he’d been accompanied by Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe and Eric Griffiths. There has to be a chance that they’ll be a one-hit wonder.

Updated at 6.22am EDT

6.01am EDT 06:01

Here we don’t go

Guess what? It’s raining again, quite hard, and the covers are coming back on.

5.52am EDT 05:52

The toss has now moved to 11.15am. The drama – sometimes it’s all too much.

5.51am EDT 05:51

England are holding another cap ceremony – not for a debutant, but for their only senior player. It’s Ben Stokes’s 100th one-day international. The squad stand in a circle as Ashley Giles makes a little speech and hands over a commemorative cap. Someone says something and Stokes bursts out laughing.

Updated at 5.53am EDT

5.47am EDT 05:47

They’re coming off!

The covers, that is. The rain seems to have stopped, though the St John’s Wood sky is still a deep grey. As things stand, the start of play will be at 11.30am, with the toss at 11.

5.38am EDT 05:38

No toss yet

With football gripping the nation, how can cricket possibly compete? By doing what it does best: having a rain delay. There’s a light shower at Lord’s, and it’s expected to turn heavy. But the good news is that the forecast now has the skies clearing around noon, rather than 3pm.

5.12am EDT 05:12

Preamble: Ben’s big day

Morning everyone and welcome to the OBO. Today, England’s World Cup-winning team return to the scene of their triumph for the first time. It’s coming, it’s coming – right, that’s enough of that. Since their epic encounter with New Zealand, two years ago next week, England’s cricketers have played three Tests at Lord’s, but no white-ball matches. They would never have guessed that the most famous ground in the world would miss out on a whole summer, spurned in favour of grounds with hotels attached. Nor would they have suspected that when they eventually returned, only one of their World Cup winners would be on board.

So this is a big moment for Ben Stokes, making his 100th appearance in ODIs and captaining England for the first time at Lord’s, in front of cricket’s first full house since lockdown. He likes it here, at least when there’s a bat in his hand: his last five innings for England at Lord’s, all in 2019, were 89, 84 not out, 9 not out, 13 and 115 not out, adding up to 310 runs at an average of 155. The 9 didn’t count in the official records, which is beyond ridiculous because it was scored, off four balls, in the Super Over of the World Cup final – possibly the greatest pressure-cooker in the history of cricket.

On Thursday in Cardiff, Stokes’s motley new crew gelled so well that he didn’t have to take a wicket or face a ball. Was it beginners’ luck, with Babar Azam’s talented Pakistan team getting caught cold? Did it suggest that behind every great squad there’s another one denied a decent chance? Or does it just mean that the solution to the eternal puzzle of England selection is to pick Stokes and any ten others?

The second match in the series will go some way to answering these questions, as long as the weather doesn’t ruin it for the crowd. The forecast is for rain in the first half of the day, clearing by about 3, so we may only get about 60 overs in – but that’s all that was needed in Cardiff. Play starts, in theory, at 11am UK time. I’ll be back around 10.35 with an update, and maybe even with the toss and teams.

Updated at 5.15am EDT

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