Kolkata, November 11 (Language) On the basis of half-century innings of three players including Ben Stokes, who scored a century in the last match, England made a strong score of 337 runs for nine wickets in the World Cup match against Pakistan here on Saturday.
For England, 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.
To reach the semi-finals, Pakistan will have to achieve the target in 6.4 overs which is not possible. However, he can end his campaign by scoring at least 188 runs and being included in the top five team.
England’s score after 40 overs was 240 runs for two wickets. 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 David Malan (31 runs on 39 balls) added 82 runs for the first wicket and gave a bright start to England who came to bat first after winning the toss. 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.
Bhasha Pant Namita
Namita
