Bairstow and Stokes lead way as England set up clean sweep

England spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali shared five wickets and restricted Pakistan to 8-247 in the fourth one-day global as the tourists’ top order continued to struggle on Thursday.

Stokes stroked a almost run-a-ball 69 and Bairstow, included at the last minute in place of the injured Jos Buttler, made 61 as England chased down Pakistan’s 247-8 with two overs to spare.

Earlier, Adil Rashid and Moeen shared five wickets between them after Azhar won the toss, with Rashid taking 3 for 47.

Earlier this season he played the whole one-day series against Sri Lanka – albeit batting just three times – because Ben Stokes was unavailable and previous year played three times against Australia when Buttler was given a break.

Their alliance reversed the momentum of the innings after Mohammad Irfan had located Jason Roy and Alex Hales’ outside edges in the first seven overs, Joe Root top-edged Hasan Ali to fine-leg and Eoin Morgan steered Umar Gul straight to slip.

If Jos Buttler misses a game through injury, as he did here, Bairstow can step in. Joe Root, who has played 32 worldwide matches since January 1 this year – the second most in the world – would head that list while Moeen Ali and, despite his truncated season, Ben Stokes are also in line for a break.

Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes provided a game-altering 103 partnership on Thursday, reviving an England innings that looked strangely subdued at 72/4 after the glory of Tuesday’s record-breaking score.

Ever since his worldwide comeback, Pakistani speedster Mohammad Amir has been in sensational form with the ball. His 104-ball innings featuring two sixes and five fours, eventually ended when he lofted Rashid to David Willey on the long-off boundary.

I got told 32 minutes before the start that I was playing.

Coach Mickey Arthur has his work cut out if he is to reverse Pakistan’s downward spiral in ODI cricket, says Sajid Sadiq.

Morgan, who is undecided on his participation in the series due to security concerns raised by terrorist attacks in Dhaka in July this year, opined that the resolution to travel to the sub-continent country will need to be taken at an individual level.

After scoring a scarcely believable 444 for three last time out, England were embroiled in an old-school 50-over tussle which appeared to be going against them when the top four were dismissed within 15 overs.

“I think we will take as much time as we need to make a decision, to feel comfortable and to feel safe”. “There was no panic at any point in that chase”.

Despite all his flamboyance with the bat, Bairstow has not been half as decent behind the stumps, but he ironed out this flaw with some aplomb in the match. “But we lost wickets frequently”. “He’s a pleasure to watch”.

“If we were chasing 290 it might have been a different story”, said Morgan. “Jonny was outstanding but he’s finding it hard to get into a winning side, which is a good problem for us”. We would have loved for him to bowl a second and third spell.

Pakistani captain Azhar Ali praised his bowlers but said that more needed to be done.