England beat Pakistan in final World Cup warm-up game
Stuart Broad picked up five wickets to help England win their second warm-up match ahead of the ICC cricket World Cup against Pakistan at Fatullah in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747. The Poms overcame Pakistan easily by 67 runs.
England were bowled out in the 50th over for 273 runs after being put into bat by the stand-n Pakistani captain Misbah-ul-Haq. In reply, Pakistan never looked like winning the match and were all-out for 206 in 46.1 overs.
Kevin Pietersen continued to bat at his newly assigned opening position and laid a solid platform for the lower order batsmen. Even though England lost their captain Andrew Strauss and first-drop Jonathan Trott early, Ian Bell and Pietersen constructed a
solid partnership for their team. The pair put together an 80-run partnership for the third wicket before Pietersen was dismissed for a well made 66 off 78 balls.
Bell also failed to capitalise on the start he got and was dismissed for a steady 39 from 58 balls. The fall of two quick wickets saw England in some trouble yet again. This brought veteran all-rounder Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara to the crease. Both
helped England pass 200 runs courtesy a brilliant 82-run fifth wicket stand.
Bopara was dismissed after a well made 35 off 39 balls. The most important thing for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 was that Collingwood got some runs, since his form will be crucial for the Poms in the World Cup. The veteran scored 65 off 73 before getting out. A cameo of 24
runs off 15 balls from wicketkeeper batsman Matt Prior helped England post a decent target for Pakistan.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Wahab-Riaz-c95839 was yet again useful in the death overs and the left-arm pacer took three wickets for his team. He got good support from youngster Junaid Khan, who also grabbed three wickets in the match.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 opted to experiment rather than trying to win the match as the Men-in-Green gave an opportunity to their relatively out of form batsmen. Four out of the top five batsmen were dismissed cheaply, which made things difficult for them.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Younis-Khan-c98325 in the middle, with Pakistan struggling at 74 for the loss of four wickets in 19.4 overs. Shehzad was looking good but failed to capitalise on the start he got. The in-form youngster
was out after scoring 26 runs off 29 balls. This brought http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Misbah-ul-Haq-c1972 to the crease and he tried to steady the innings with Younis.
However, Misbah was also unable to stay at the wicket for too long and got out after scoring just 25 runs off 35 balls.
Younis was running out of partners at the other end and eventually lost his wicket as well trying to increase the run-rate. However, he did manage to become the match’s top scorer with 80 runs off 101 balls. Pakistan will be quite pleased to see Younis strike
form just ahead of the World Cup.
The tail-enders didn’t last long either and the team was dismissed in the 47th over, which gave England a convincing victory.
Stuart Broad was yet again impressive as the young all-rounder got five wickets in the match. He will be eying a strong run in the tournament after good performances in the both the warm-up matches.
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