Kolkata, November 11 (Language) Defending champions England, already out of the race for the semi-finals, ended their disappointing campaign with a win by defeating Pakistan by 93 runs in their final league match of the ICC ODI World Cup here on Saturday. Also secured their place in the Champions Trophy to be held in 2025.
England won the toss and batted first and scored a strong score of 337 runs for nine wickets. In response, Pakistan team was out after scoring 244 runs in 43.3 overs.
England thus ended their campaign with six points from nine matches. He finished seventh in the points table. The teams finishing in the top eight in the World Cup will qualify for the Champions Trophy. Pakistan finished fifth but had automatically qualified for the Champions Trophy as hosts.
After this match, it was also decided that India will face New Zealand in the semi-final while the second semi-final will be between Australia and South Africa.
For England, Ben Stokes (84 runs in 76 balls), Jonny Bairstow (59 runs in 61 balls) and Joe Root (60 runs in 72 balls) scored half-centuries. For Pakistan, fast bowler Haris Rauf took three wickets for 64 runs while Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Wasim took two wickets each.
Pakistan’s batsmen got off to a good start but no one was able to convert it into a big score. From his side, Agha Salman scored 51 runs on 45 balls. David Willey was England’s most successful bowler. This fast bowler, who retired after this tournament, took three wickets for 56 runs. Apart from him, Gus Atkinson, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid took two wickets each.
To reach the semi-finals, Pakistan had to achieve the target in 6.4 overs but by this stage it could score only 30 runs and in the meantime it had also lost the wickets of both its openers Abdullah Shafiq (00) and Fakhar Zaman (01). Both of them were dismissed by David Willey.
Captain Babar Azam (38 runs on 45 balls) again could not convert a good start into a big innings. He pulled at Atkinson’s short pitch ball and was caught at mid-wicket. After this, Pakistan’s batsmen exercised caution due to which they reached triple figures in 22 overs.
During this period, apart from Atkinson, both spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid bowled well. While Pakistan’s batsmen tried to show pace, Moeen bowled Mohammad Rizwan (36 runs on 52 balls) and Rashid bowled Saud Shakeel (29 runs on 37 balls), sending them on the back foot again.
After this, due to the efforts of Salman and Afridi (25), Pakistan crossed the mark of 188 runs and ensured their fifth position. Willey took his 100th wicket in ODI cricket by dismissing Salman. Rauf (35) and Mohammad Wasim (16 not out) made a 53-run partnership for the last wicket to reduce the margin of defeat.
Earlier, England’s score was 240 runs for two wickets after 40 overs. He scored 97 runs in the last 10 overs but in the meantime also lost seven wickets.
Rauf did not allow Stokes to score a century by bowling him on a ball taking reverse swing. However, Rauf also became the first Asian bowler to score more than 500 runs in a single tournament.
Stokes presented a good example of pull and reverse sweep and hit two sixes and 11 fours in his innings. He made an important partnership of 132 runs for the third wicket with Root.
Bairstow and Dawid Malan (31 runs off 39 balls) gave a bright start to England by adding 82 runs for the first wicket. Afridi and Rauf troubled the batsmen in the first three overs but after that the ball continuously saw the boundary line due to which England was successful in scoring 72 runs in the first powerplay.
This partnership broke due to Malan’s dismissal. Wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan dived and caught the ball of spinner Iftikhar Ahmed. Bairstow could not convert his half-century into a century. He rewarded Rauf with his wicket.
Pakistan’s fielding was not good. He dropped some catches, including the catch of Stokes. When he was playing on 10 runs, Afridi dropped his catch on his own ball. Earlier, Afridi had also given life to Malan. At that time this batsman had not even opened his account.
England captain Jos Buttler again failed to play a long innings. He scored 27 runs while Harry Brook contributed 30 runs.
Language
Pant Namita
Namita
