PAK 217/4 bt ENG 216 by 6 wickets
Match report
Pakistan have eased to a 1-0 lead in the one-day international series against England with a six-wicket victory in Abu Dhabi. After a disappointing defeat to Pakistan in the Test series, Eoin Morgan and his ODI side hoped to bring back some positivity, but their hopes were dashed early after going into bat.
Jason Roy faced just two balls before he was bowled out for a duck by Mohammad Irfan, leaving England one wicket down inside the opening over of the day. Roy's teammates did not do much better as Joe Root was also sent packing for a duck, while Morgan and James Taylor got the best figures of the innings with 76 and 60 respectively. Pakistan dominated the field as Irfan took three wickets, Anwar Ali and Shoaib Malik claimed two, while Yasir Shah nabbed one to bowl England all out for 216 in 50 overs. England's bowlers had a big job on their hands when they took to the field, but it was a positive start as Reece Topley trapped Ali (8) for lbw in the second over.
The 21-year-old made the most of his momentum by dismissing Bilal Asif for two runs just one over later thanks to a review, and he continued his dominance by ending Younis Khan's ODI career by claiming his third wicket of the innings. Khan was competing in his final limited-overs game and it was not a memorable innings for the Pakistan cricketer as he could only muster nine runs before being caught out by Adil Rashid. Moeen Ali got in on the act by sending Malik (26) back to the pavilion, but Pakistan continued to tick towards the 217-run target thanks to Mohammad Hafeez passing 50.
England were placed on the backfoot again as Hafeez managed to take control of the match and eventually steered Pakistan to their total with an unbeaten 102, which included one six and 10 boundaries, off 130 balls. Babar Azam also contributed with 62 runs as Pakistan claimed victory with 38 balls remaining. There are three ODIs left in the series.
ENG innings: 216 all out
England have set Pakistan a target of just 217 to win the first one-day international in Abu Dhabi. Eoin Morgan won the toss and opted to bat, but Pakistan flourished in the field as a 133-run fourth-wicket Morgan-James Taylor stand was the only ray of light for the tourists. Mohammad Irfan claimed the first wicket of the day with just the second ball when he beat Jason Roy (0) and upset the opener's off stump.
In came Joe Root, but he did not trouble the scoreboard either as an Anwar Ali delivery in the next over trapped him lbw. Root reviewed the decision, but replays showed that the ball was clipping leg stump. England's first three batsmen had all gone by the 19th ball of the innings as Alex Hales edged an Ali ball to Younis Khan, but then Morgan (76) and Taylor (60) put on England's biggest-ever fourth-wicket ODI partnership in Asia. Both men passed 50 before Shoaib Malik claimed their wickets, with Jos Buttler (1) run out in between courtesy of Ali's quick work at mid-wicket.
Yasir Shah took the wicket of Moeen Ali (7) thanks to a fine one-handed catch high to his left by Babar Azam. Adil Rashid then chipped an Irfan delivery to Pakistani sub Zafar Gohar after also making seven. Chris Woakes (33 not out) and David Willey (13) provided some resistance for the ninth wicket, but boundaries were hard to come by as Pakistan bowled England out for 216 in the final over.
Bangladesh 276/9 (50.0 ov)
Zimbabwe 215 (43.3 ov)
Bangladesh won by 61 runs
In three spells that tested the skill of the Zimbabwe batsmen and drew plenty of oohs and aahs from the crowd at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mustafizur Rahman took his third five-for to ensure Bangladesh's 3-0 sweep of the ODI series.
Mustafizur conceded boundaries from time to time but Zimbabwe's batsmen could not dominate him. There were many plays and misses, and edges that almost carried to the slips. There were several occasions when the ball missed the stumps by a whisker as he got the ball to swing and cut. When he ran in to bowl with Zimbabwe nine-down, Mashrafe Mortaza gave him eight slips.
Mustafizur's first two strikes upset the boundary-filled start that Zimbabwe made in the first seven overs. Off the second ball of the chase, Chamu Chibhabha had little clue as Mustafizur got the ball to swing enough to get past his driving arms. Craig Ervine and Regis Chakabva kept finding fours but in the seventh over again, Mustafizur removed Chakabva with a slower delivery that the opening batsmen could only lob to cover.
Ervine fell to Nasir Hossain in the ninth over when he played back to a delivery that didn't get up as much as he anticipated and he was trapped lbw for 21 off 25 balls.
Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura then joined Sean Williams in an attempt to resurrect the innings and get a measure of the required run-rate. Williams was given a lifeline when the substitute fielder Anamul Haque dropped him at mid-off on 23. The two batsmen found boundaries, too, and Mashrafe started to look for his sixth bowler. Sabbir Rahman bowled an excellent delivery to get rid of Chigumbura in the 23rd over after he had added 80 runs for the fourth wicket with Williams. Chigumbura made 45 with six boundaries and was removed before he could open up in a big way.
Zimbabwe could have ended this ODI series without a single fifty from their batsmen had Arafat Sunny not trodden on the stumps in the 30th over when Williams - batting on 49 - was short of the crease.
For the next six overs, Bangladesh had to contend with a dangerous partnership between Malcolm Waller and Williams but Nasir intervened, taking a head-high catch in the covers to dismiss Waller. Next over, Williams fell to an easy catch at cover after he failed to time a drive off Mashrafe. He made 64 off 84 balls with five fours.
Mustafizur came back to remove Sikandar Raza, who was caught splendidly by Sabbir as he ran from mid-on to mid-off. Next ball, Luke Jongwe holed out at midwicket, but his hat-trick ball was kept away by Graeme Cremer. Later, Mustafizur took a return catch to dismiss Tinashe Panyangara and complete a third five-wicket haul in ODIs, figures that complemented the work of Bangladesh's opening batsmen.
Earlier, Bangladesh's innings was split into two parts after they opted to bat. The first part comprised the 147-run opening stand between Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal. It was enough of a base to get close to 300 runs but it wasn't to be, and the second part saw them restricted to 276 for 9.
Tamim started the early rush of boundaries with a pull off Panyangara; it was his only four through the leg side as the remaining six fours were played through the covers. Tamim's only six came off a blast over the bowler's head. But by then Kayes had struck four sixes - three between midwicket and square-leg and, the best of the lot, one over extra cover. He also struck six fours, three on either side of the wicket.
Kayes was dropped on 35 and survived a stumping and caught-behind off the same delivery on 48 after Chakabva missed a stumping and replays showed there was an edge. Both Tamim and Kayes fell for 73 in the space of five overs, but Bangladesh still had their eyes on a bigger total with Mushfiqur Rahim in the middle after the fall of the first wicket.
Mushfiqur, too, fell before they reached 200, which meant much of the work depended on Liton Das and Mahmudullah, two batsmen who had struggled to get going in the first two matches. Liton gave a catch one to cover after making 17 while Nasir Hossain and Sabbir Rahman fell to Luke Jongwe in the space of three deliveries, Cremer holding on to easy catches at point.
Bangladesh slipped from 222 for 3 to 226 for 6 within 11 deliveries and were in danger of getting bowled out before 50 overs. Mahmudullah, who was on 32, then got mixed up with Mashrafe in the 45th over only for wicketkeeper Chakabva to knock down the bails seconds before Sikandar Raza's direct hit found Mahmudullah short of the crease.
Mahmudullah stood near the dressing-room while TV umpire Enamul Haque saw many replays and finally decided it was not-out. Chigumbura, however, protested the decision and the broadcasters then showed a replay in which Chakabva had uprooted the stump but did so after Aleem Dar had initially given out to the direct throw.
With the second decision also not out, Zimbabwe gathered into a huddle for a few minutes but both captains shook hands and the game resumed.
Mahmudullah added another 20 runs, and was run-out in the last over as Bangladesh scampered towards their highest score in the three-match series.
Jongwe and Cremer took two wickets each while Panyangara, Raza and Waller took one each. Among them, Panyangara bowled the best spells.
West Indies 162/6 v Sri Lanka 139
West Indies won by 23 runs
West Indies bowlers delivered tight lines and intelligent variations of pace on a slow Khettarama surface to force a Sri Lanka collapse and prise a 23-run victory to end an otherwise barren tour. Dwayne Bravo collected four wickets, and Ravi Rampaul three, in the visitors' defence of 162 for 6, which like their bowling, had also been a collective effort.
The victory gives West Indies a share of the series, though Sri Lanka keep the top T20 rank. Bravo, who hit a run-a-ball 31 in addition to his 4 for 28 with the ball, was named Man of the Match.
Tillakaratne Dilshan struck his second fifty of the series but - although his own strike-rate was nearly 137 - his 70-run stand with Shehan Jayasuriya drew some of the momentum from Sri Lanka's innings. Jayasuriya was out for 30 off 32 balls. His wicket set in motion a capitulation that cost nine wickets for 46 runs. Incoming batsmen attempted to hit out immediately, mindful of a climbing required rate, but managed only to find secure pairs of hands in the outfield.
Jayasuriya was scoreless off his first seven balls and, although he struck successive fours off Jerome Taylor, he slipped into a pattern of finding fielders with his big shots. Dilshan also misread the pace of the ball off the pitch on occasion, and West Indies continued to squeeze in cheap overs through the first half of the chase. When Jayasuriya was dismissed - thanks to an outstanding running catch from Andre Russell at the long-on boundary - Sri Lanka's required rate was nearing 10.
Dinesh Chandimal was almost caught at the leg-side boundary first ball, but securely held immediately after. Dilshan was out switch-hitting Rampaul in the same over, and Angelo Mathews was caught trying to clear the backward square leg boundary not long after that. From then on, Sri Lanka lost at least one wicket per over. Chamara Kapugedara was caught at cover. Milinda Siriwardene was stumped running at Sunil Narine. The hosts had unraveled definitively by the middle of the 18th over.
This was after their own bowlers had withstood brief charges from Johnson Charles and Denesh Ramdin, who both hit 34 at either end of West Indies' batting effort. The visitors had warmed up slowly, hitting only 17 from the first 26 balls, until Charles ignited the innings with a four-ball sequence that brought 22 runs. Charles ran at Sachithra Senanayake twice to lift him for sixes into the leg-side stands, and swept him twice as well, collecting a six and a four. The next over from Dushmantha Chameera was equally expensive. Andre Fletcher struck three fours as Chameera erred down the legside - though he also had Fletcher dropped off a slower ball, on 16.
With 44 runs having come off the last two Powerplay overs, West Indies appeared to be surging. Milinda Siriwardana's left-arm spin quickly brought the hosts some control. He trapped Fletcher in front with a slider, saw Marlon Samuels run-out later in that over, then struck again with his arm ball to have the visitors 75 for 3 after nine overs.
West Indies attacked intermittently after that, but had their salvos briskly shut down. Andre Russell was dismissed in the 12th over after two sixes had come in the previous five balls. Ramdin cracked two sixes and a four in the 14th and 15th overs, but was soon forced to contend with a stream of good yorkers - particularly from Nuwan Kulasekara - which he could only dig out for singles or twos.
Sri Lanka's seamers were pinpoint at the finish. Although opposition hitters were at the crease, Malinga conceded only five runs in each of his last two overs, and Kulasekara no more than seven from his. Ramdin remained unbeaten at the end of the innings.
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