Pakistan vs England 4th ODI Lords HIGHLIGHTS HD

England v Pakistan, 4th ODI, Lord's
Gul and Shoaib square the series
Pakistan 265 for 7 (Hafeez 64, Swann 4-37) beat England 227 (Strauss 68, Gul 4-32) by 38 runs
Scorecard Pakistan took the one-day series to a decider as they secured a 38-run victory at Lord's with their bowling attack again showing its match-winning qualities, after England's openers had seemingly put their on track to take the series with a 113-run stand. The spinners struck vital blows in the middle-order, then Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar became a handful under the floodlights. Earlier, a fearsome late assault from Abdul Razzaq, who hit 40 off his last 10 balls, gave Pakistan a powerful surge.Under normal circumstances we would now be in for a thrilling end to the season at The Rose Bowl, but this match was played under a horrid atmosphere of legal threats from the England team following Ijaz Butt's extraordinary outburst the day before. Andrew Strauss admitted his team were reluctant participants, but felt the best thing was to complete the series as planned although it took a meeting that stretched into the early hours to decide.Whatever England's mindset, once the game was on they wanted to be professional and will know a series-clinching victory was there for the taking. They'd been given the ideal platform by Strauss and Steve Davies - which had seemingly nullified Razzaq's innings - but as the floodlights started to take effect on the late-September evening conditions became tougher. However, credit also has to go to Pakistan's bowlers who came back superbly with the spinners proving a handful on a dry surface while Gul was again outstanding.

Strauss flew out of the blocks as Shoaib's first three overs cost 30 and after the initial Powerplay England were 73 without loss with 10 boundaries; in the rest of the innings they only managed another 10. Strauss went to a run-a-ball fifty, his third in a row as he became the second leading run-scorer in ODIs this year, while Davies wasn't far behind until he dragged Saeed Ajmal into his stumps. That wicket brought England to a shuddering halt as Strauss lost the strike and Jonathan Trott, who earlier in the day was involved in an altercation with Wahab Riaz in the nets, struggled to bed in.The ECB played down the incident between Trott and Riaz, but it was a clear sign of how far the relationship between the two sides has fallen in recent weeks. Trott appeared uneasy in the middle before watching the ball roll back into his stumps from a defensive push against Shahid Afridi. Pakistan didn't try to

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• pakistan
• cricket
• shoaib
• akthar
• lords
• 4th
• odi
• highlights
• high
• definition
• quality