Pakistan bowl against England in 5th ODI

Sarfraz inherits a squad with a belated feelgood factor after his and Shoaib Malik’s big-hitting helped the majority of them re-discover a winning feeling against England in Sunday’s final one-day global in Cardiff.

England, aiming to clean sweep Pakistan 5-0 in the series, made three changes from the team that won the fourth ODI by four wickets at Headingley.

But they were helpless as he conceded 70 runs from eight overs to put Pakistan on course for a consolation win, which they secured with 10 balls to spare in chasing down the target of 303.

They will now aim to reclaim the ICC Champions Trophy title to add to its World Cup trophy, when it is staged next year in the United Kingdom.

It’s all change for Pakistan, who bid farewell to their ODI skipper, Azhar Ali (not to mention their less-than-match-fit substitute seamer, Irfan), and welcome instead Sarfraz to the helm.

“We’ve been outstanding”, Morgan said.

If Bangladesh wins all the three matches against Afghanistan, plus manages a series win against England, then they will achieve their highest-ever ranking of sixth. In this series we’ve shown it every game – we’ve been ruthless in what we’ve done and the way we’ve gone about our business.

“We lost a lot of momentum by losing wickets in the fashion we did”, said the captain, who promises nonetheless his side will not be tempering their aggressive intent any time soon. The fact we fell short and only got 300 isn’t a bad thing.

England may still be fifth in ICC’s ODI rankings, but they have made significant progress since their embarrassing first-round exit at last year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. “He will be under pressure since worldwide cricket brings that added burden but I have faith in his abilities and think he is the right candidate for the job”.

Stokes’ scratchy start contained a let-off too, on one, when Imad spun one back through the gate as he over-balanced – but Sarfraz Ahmed could not gather for the stumping chance.

“As a batter, you’re always disappointed because you’re very rarely not out – and as a bowler, you very rarely take a wicket with the last ball of your spell”. Do any Pakistan players make the list? “We are trying to develop a new team with youngsters and play Twenty20 like England and Australia”, Dawn quoted Sarfraz as saying.