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Scorecard Summary
ENGLAND 274/6 (41 OVERS)
- Steven Davies87 (67)
- Jonathan Trott69 (78)
- Shahid Afridi1/52 (7.3)
- Saeed Ajmal4/58 (9)
PAKISTAN 250/9 (41 OVERS)
- Kamran Akmal53 (61)
- Umar Akmal43 (33)
- James Anderson2/35 (9)
- Michael Yardy2/49 (8)
END OF OVER:41 | 4 Runs | PAK: 250/9 (25 runs required, RR: 6.09)
- Saeed Ajmal9 (8b)
- Mohammad Irfan3 (5b)
- Stuart Broad8-0-54-1
- James Anderson9-0-35-2
It's been another pretty clinical performance from England. Their celebrations are a touch muted, but the home side have been good today. A team performance from them really with contributions from the top six in the batting order - led by Davies's 87 and Trott's 69 - and two wickets apiece for Anderson, Bresnan, Swann and Yardy. Pakistan kept up with the asking rate, just about, for much of their chase but as the pressure mounted their batting unravelled.
Their bowling was a bit of a mixed bag too. Shoaib Akhtar was exemplary with the new ball, but received no back-up at all and didn't have much luck either - he beat the outside edge of pretty much every batsman he bowled to. Ajmal was impressive, picking up four wickets, but the rest of the attack was a touch disappointing.
"The way Shoaib [Akhtar] bowled, he really bowled well," says Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi. "I'm not 100% happy but I'm happier than I was before. We need some more intensity in the field. Playing in these conditions you need experience, but Irfan is very talented and he will adjust himself quickly. I'm still hopeful, I'm always positive."
"Steve Davies was outstanding with the bat and our score was competitive on this wicket," says Andrew Strauss. "Bopara gave us some momentum to take into the field, but Pakistan did well to stay in the game. I'm pretty happy, but there are always areas to improve. We could have been better in the field. The guys in the squad are vying for positions in the team now, and that's always a healthy position."
Steve Davies is the Man of the Match. "I'm very happy to be honest," he says. "The pressure is on when you open the batting and I was happy to get a good score. I didn't time it too well at first and Shoaib bowled a really good spell, but it got easier the longer i was in." Ashes? World Cup? Athers asks. "Fingers crossed, yes," says Davies.
A final word before your commentary team - Andrew Miller, Sahil Dutta and Liam Brickhill - depart. In case you hadn't heard, this season NatWest is celebrating 30 years of its support of cricket in England (clue: this is the first match of the NatWest ODI series). You can look back at great NatWest cricket moments on their official site, powered by ESPNcricinfo. Definitely worth checking out, there have been some epic moments over the years. Well, that's all from us today. Gnasher's bulletin will be up presently, but otherwise it's goodbye from us.
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