Toss : England won the toss and decided to bat

Teams: 

England Team
EJG Morgan*, AD Hales, JJ Roy, JM Vince, SW Billings†, MM Ali, AU Rashid, CJ Jordan, LE Plunkett, SD Parry, RJW Topley

Pakistan Team
Shahid Afridi*, Rafatullah Mohmand, Sarfraz Ahmed†, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal, Anwar Ali, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan (1)

England innings: Batting first on a flat wicket, England got off to a disastrous start losing their top order for 19 runs in the 4th over. Debutant Vince and Morgan carried a rebuilding partnership before Wahab breached Vince defenses for a well made 41. Sam Billings, replacing Buttler, made sure he wasn't missed by scoring a quickfire 50, taking a particular liking to Imran Khan JR.'s slower balls. He was run out on the last ball of the innings but not before he had done significant damage. Morgan calmly paced his innings playing an unbeaten 45* from a precarious 19-3. Anwar Ali was the only bowler to concede less than 7.5 per over going for 19 in his 4 overs.

Fall of Wickets:

1-16 (Jason Roy, 1.6 ov), 
2-18 (Alex Hales, 2.3 ov), 
3-19 (Moeen Ali, 3.5 ov), 
4-95 (James Vince, 13.6 ov), 
5-160 (Sam Billings, 19.6 ov)

Pakistan innings: Pakistan were once again searching for early momentum but couldn't capitalize in the early overs, losing wickets at regular intervals. Umar Akmal looked good for his 19 before he was involved in a terrible mix up which resulted in both the batsmen ending up at the same end. Shahid Afridi and Sohaib Maqsood soon followed leaving the task to the bowlers. The lower order tried their best but the task in the end was too stiff for them to overcome. England were disciplined with their bowling and capitalized on the errors of Pakistan's batsmen. Liam Plunkett was particularly impressive with his pace and accuracy and Reece Topley delivered a good final over to give England a 14 run win and a lead of 1-0 in the 3 match series.

Fall of Wickets:

1-8 (Sarfaraz, 1.3 ov), 
2-22 (Hafeez, 3.6 ov),
3-25 (Rafatullah, 5.1 ov),
4-42 (Rizwan, 7.4 ov)
5-74 (Akmal, 11.2 ov)
6-74 (Afridi, 11.4 ov)
7-75 (Maqsood, 12.1)
8-100 (Anwar, 14.6 ov)
9-145 (Wahab, 19.3 ov)
10-146 (Imran, 19.6 ov)

Summary: Pakistan's timid batting approach and a traditional collapse was once again the problem in constructing a successful chase. The bowlers too, were a bit undisciplined and the field placements too left a lot to wonder for. A better execution of death bowling would have saved Pakistan with 15-20 runs less to chase. The batting, as usual, was going nowhere right from the start and the innings never gained any momentum throughout. A terrible run-out capped off a typical Pakistani collapse and thus ending a promising partnership. The captain was once again not found contributing and serious questions needs to be asked of a non performing captain. The series is still open and Pakistan need to come up with better planning for tomorrow's game if they are to stay alive in this series.

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