Pakistan vs England ODI series

The ODI series starts today, details of the fixtures in the 4 match series are as follows:
   
   Wed Nov 11 (50 ovs) 15:00 local (11:00 GMT)
   1st ODI - England v Pakistan Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi D/N
 
   Fri Nov 13 (50 ovs) 15:00 local (11:00 GMT)
   2nd ODI - England v Pakistan Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi D/N
   
   Tue Nov 17 (50 ovs) 15:00 local (11:00 GMT)
   3rd ODI - England v Pakistan Sharjah Cricket Stadium D/N
 
   Fri Nov 20 (50 ovs) 15:00 local (11:00 GMT)
   4th ODI - England v Pakistan Dubai International Cricket Stadium D/N

Younis Khan has announced today will be his last ODI

That's just flat out weird timing

England win the toss! Get Moggs in the Test side for his tossing skills!

Choose to bat first. Same team as the warm-up game, so presumably Hales Roy Root Taylor Morgan Buttler Ali Rashid Woakes Willey Topley.

Bats deep.

England win the toss and bat first

Roy, Hales, Root, Morgan, Taylor, Buttler, Moeen, Rashid, Woakes, Willey and Topley the line up.

Good side, although a tad apprehensive about being a bowler light

That is very odd from Younis, and devalues the match as in my view as he will clearly not play in future CTs or World Cups so couldn't another batsmen get a chance, or is this some kind of benefit match in his head?

Teams have been announced, MFC correct on the England team, that is a long batting line up for sure but the bowling looks quite weak to me:

Pakistan 1 Azhar Ali (capt), 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Bilal Asif, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Anwar Ali, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Yasir Shah, 11 Mohammad Irfan

England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 James Taylor, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Reece Topley

VTR wrote:That is very odd from Younis, and devalues the match as in my view as he will clearly not play in future CTs or World Cups so couldn't another batsmen get a chance, or is this some kind of benefit match in his head?

Teams have been announced, MFC correct on the England team, that is a long batting line up for sure but the bowling looks quite weak to me:

Pakistan 1 Azhar Ali (capt), 2 Ahmed Shehzad, 3 Mohammad Hafeez, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Shoaib Malik, 6 Bilal Asif, 7 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 8 Anwar Ali, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Yasir Shah, 11 Mohammad Irfan

England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 James Taylor, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 David Willey, 11 Reece Topley

Firstly, thanks for the tread, VTR.

I too don't like the quitting by Younis at this stage. Sadly it does some to be an increasingly modern trend.

Meanwhile, Sky break off from coverage of the England players observing the Armistice silence to go to a commercial break. Utterly shameful.

Roy is not an opener

First sight, Root looked out to me. No bat, batsman going back. Just might be missing leg is the hope ....

Yep, not missing leg. Gone. 7/2 - oh dear!

This is all wrong, 7/2 should usually mean Root striding out to save the day not walking off! I need to adjust from Test to ODI mode

And now 14/3. A juggling catch by Younis to get rid rid of Hales.

Thought Sarfraz could have made more of an effort at the end of the previous over to try and catch Morgan. He was wrong footed to start with but never recovered or got off the ground - MfC?

Bad start from our top order, but I'm sure they'll grow into the series.

Taylor and Morgan leading the recovery

Good recovery so far by these two but important to keep it going.

79/3 off 16 now.

Nothing better than watching Eoin Morgan on top form

Does anyone fancy Morgan v2 for another crack at the Test team? Incredible consistency in ODIs since the start of last summer

Been watching this on and off...

Decent recovery effort from these two after that dreadful start. Going to need a hefty score I'd imagine - bowling looks a bit short of experience/class.
Not sure I share Olly's confidence that the top order will "grow into the series" ...Root will , of course ; but Hales and Roy have some work to do , I think.
Later order looks much sounder with these two , and both spinners batting late. If Buttler can recover some form , runs are there. Nearly forgotten Woakes...

But who is going to bowl Pakistan out ?

alfie wrote:Been watching this on and off...

Decent recovery effort from these two after that dreadful start.  Going to need a hefty score I'd imagine - bowling looks a bit short of experience/class.
Not sure I share Olly's confidence that the top order will "grow into the series" ...Root will , of course ; but Hales and Roy have some work to do , I think.
Later order looks much sounder with these two , and both spinners batting late. If Buttler can recover some form , runs are there. Nearly forgotten Woakes...

But who is going to bowl Pakistan out ?

Alfie you need to join my Chris Woakes bandwagon - hop aboard before it really takes off

Jimmy Taylor - what a talent

Hope you're right Olly

I'm on your Taylor bandwagon anyway ...enjoying watching him today ; starting to match Morgan for fluency.

Hope J Dizzle's been watching or at least sees the highlights. He started the Jimmy Taylor bandwagon here and his little man's been playing very well and intelligently.

Almost a jinx there but Taylor gets away with it. However, Morgan doesn't the next ball - good catch behind by Sarfraz.

Really wanted these two stay together for another 10 overs. They've put us in a decent position but the wheels could still come off. 147/4 off 30.3 ....

Surely that's out!

Something had to give , I suppose.

Taylor survives with a stroke of luck - but Morgan departs.

And I think that's a run out...

Yes.

148/5 not looking so good

It is and the wheels are looking loose!

Poor Jos

Moeen to save the side ?

Certainly a change of scenery for him - number one to number seven

Important Taylor bats through now. But I think 300 might be off the table now...get 270 ?

Alfie - I think it'll be 270 at best. The last 5 wickets would need to go at more than a run a ball for the remaining 18 overs to get that on the board. Possible if we have one or two goodish partnerships but not easy.

I was hoping for 200/3 or 4 off 40 and then up to 310 at the end.

Olly wrote:

alfie wrote:Been watching this on and off...

Decent recovery effort from these two after that dreadful start.  Going to need a hefty score I'd imagine - bowling looks a bit short of experience/class.
Not sure I share Olly's confidence that the top order will "grow into the series" ...Root will , of course ; but Hales and Roy have some work to do , I think.
Later order looks much sounder with these two , and both spinners batting late. If Buttler can recover some form , runs are there. Nearly forgotten Woakes...

But who is going to bowl Pakistan out ?

Alfie you need to join my Chris Woakes bandwagon - hop aboard before it really takes off

Olly - I have friends and family in the Midlands who follow Warks. About 3 years they were speaking very highly about his batting (potential) and thought that would become the strongest part of his game. I would generally trust their judgement but it hasn't really happened as yet.

Think I would take 200 now after this collapse!

VTR wrote:Think I would take 200 now after this collapse!

VTR - that's probably a realistic call but we're going to need more than that to trouble Pakistan. Their batsmen will manage 4 an over and unless the cricketing gods shine on our spinners it's very hard (per Alfie's earlier post) to see where we'll get 10 wickets from.

Anyway, now down to Olly's man Woakes and Rashid plus probably Willey to set some sort of total. Topley is a ferret so don't bank on any from him.

Horrible collapse

I must have jinxed them. Bedtime , I think.

Good luck bowlers

Agreed guildford, just don't see where many more are coming from, it will be an easy target. I will predict now Pakistan to win by 8 wickets with almost 10 overs spare

From 145/3 off 30 to 216 all out off 49.4. Very disappointing. Difficult to see anything other than a Pakistan win from here.

ermmmm

122/4 off 27.

95 more for Pakistan. Imo England will need to bowl Pakistan out, not enough on the board to stop them reaching their total without 10 wickets.

Still feel Pakistan should win this but the 4 wickets have given England a sniff. 3 for Topley up front and the regular one just stolen by Moeen. Too much filth though mixed in with the good balls from Moeen and, as usual, Rashid.

Well that was pretty comprehensive!

Only positives for England were Morgan and Taylor batting and Topley's bowling

Haven't got all night to list the negatives!

VTR wrote:Agreed guildford, just don't see where many more are coming from, it will be an easy target. I will predict now Pakistan to win by 8 wickets with almost 10 overs spare

Not bang on the money but near enough, VTR! A 6 wicket win for Pakistan with more than 6 overs spare.

England had their chances and especially how things were set after 30 overs but blew it badly. A good bowling return for Topley but he's very much alone today amongst the England bowlers. Hard to see us curtailing runs and/or taking 10 wickets with this attack.

Bad way to start the series from England, but I'm sure the batsmen will bounce back in the next game.

This is a talented bunch who have just come off a summer where they pretty much split the games against the world cup finalists. A lot of potential in this one day side

Definitely need another bowler (Patel?) , and move Ali to opener in place of Hales.

On the face of it at any rate, a concerning stat from cricinfo - Olly's man Woakes hasn't taken a wicket in his last 6 ODIs.

Time to change that.

guildfordbat wrote:On the face of it at any rate, a concerning stat from cricinfo - Olly's man Woakes hasn't taken a wicket in his last 6 ODIs.

Time to change that.

That's very poor. I am sure Olly will put me on ignore whilst sticking pins into my username but I will say I am not at all convinced by Woakes as an international quality bowler in ODIs or Tests - he just doesn't seem to have an outstanding trait that will worry top level batsmen

VTR - I don't think you need worry too much about Olly - he's shown himself to be one of the good guys here!

As for Woakes, it was always my concern from around the time people first started talking about him that he didn't quite have the pace for international cricket. I did read in the summer that this was something he had worked on and upped. I'll reserve judgement for now. If he does develop as hoped and Olly believes, he'll be a valuable England player but atm there's a lingering doubt that his abilities are more suited to the higher levels of the county game.

Guildford, Woakes has definitely got quicker.
I actually rate him quite highly.

Jimbo, not disagreeing but Woakes is one of those (several?) players who before too long will need to go from simply having potential to properly and regularly delivering. Don't wish to set ridiculous and immediate targets but a couple of wickets today would be good.

Meanwhile, a fine start from these two and in marked contrast to the opening game. 64/0 off 12. More than decent foundations being built although I'm counting no chickens at this stage.

Olly wrote:Bad start from our top order, but I'm sure they'll grow into the series.

That's a fair point about Woakes, he is 27 fairly soon, not ancient by any means but a lot of players have been successful from a much younger age

Century opening partnership.  Roy departs - for an excellent 54.  With England in ODIs you feel either a collapse or a period when they are becalmed for 10 overs is only a few moments away, but I hope they can post a competitive total after this start.

Agree with that, Guildford

Olly wrote:

Olly wrote:Bad start from our top order, but I'm sure they'll grow into the series.

Neat. Very neat.

VTR wrote:That's a fair point about Woakes, he is 27 fairly soon, not ancient by any means but a lot of players have been successful from a much younger age

He's also just come off a pretty serious injury. And I'd say is better in red ball stuff.

Would like to see him play a part against the saffers

135-1 off 25.

Time to go for it