Suppose you grind day in and day out for your orchestral rendition of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, and just a few hours before your presentation, organisers call you to cancel it. There’s a slight change in the program, and you are asked to play 80s jazz-funk on your saxophone. How would you react?
There is none to explain this scenario better than the current Pakistan squad, for they went through a very similar ordeal. Stuart Broad was spot on when he took a dig on Pakistan’s team analyst. They had planned for an expedition of peaky mountains, and instead, pounding waves lay in front of them to surf.
The first ODI ended on a sour note. Pakistan succumbed to a nine-wicket defeat to Ben Stokes’ side. Saqib Mahmood (10-1-42-4) wreaked havoc with the ball, and he was ably assisted by other pacers, as Pakistan huffed and puffed to 141.
In reply, England lost only one wicket before Dawid Malan combined with debutant Zak Crawley to take England across the finishing line in just over 20 overs. Malan made an unbeaten 68 in 69 deliveries, while Crawley got 58 not out.
Against a team that one may confuse for Vitality Blast All Stars, Pakistan were all over the place from the word go. But they do have an argument here. They had come prepared for Wood and Woakes and Willey. Saqib Mahmood came out of the syllabus. Matthew Parkinson was not supposed to be here, and not many have heard of Lewis Gregory.
And these three were were the main purveyors of doom. All Mahmood needed was three balls to push Pakistan in a spot of the bother. He trapped Imam-ul-Haq first ball, and induced an outside edge off Babar Azam a ball later.
In a blink of an eye, Pakistan were two down without anything on the board. A three-minute toilet break, and Pakistan were 17/3. It was Mohammad Rizwan this time, undone by a ripper from Lewis Gregory.
Amidst the constant arrivals and departures, Fakhar Zaman was the only constant. He kept his wicket intact, with Sohaib Maqsood playing a short but vital role from the other end.
With wickets falling from the other end, Fakhar realised the importance of keeping the scoreboard ticking. The hesitation to play shots, apparent and logical at the start, started to wear off as he started to run out of partners. Zaman grew into the game, and scored more freely. He drove Gregory in the eighth over to bring his first boundary. Craig Overton tried testing him with half-trackers but was duly punished twice inside an over.
An attempted cut off Parkinson brought an end to Fakhar’s innings. He smashed hard but only in the grasp of Zak Crawley. Shadab Khan’s 43-ball 30 dragged Pakistan’s total to 141. Apart from Mahmood, Craig Overton and Matthew Parkinson picked up two wickets each.
Whie the first innings was full of drama and unpredictability, the second offered no such spectacle. Apart from Phil Salt’s dismissal, there was no roadblock in England’s journey. The replacements never let us feel the absence of their original components.
Malan was as serene as Joe Root would have been. Crawley built his innings with grace and poise that made it look like England have messed up his format. He is unlikely to retain his place in the Test squad after a string of failures, but weird as it might sound, he may make a case with a strong display in the current ODI series.
And Crawley has crossed the first hurdle with flying colours. His 50-ball 58 was bedecked with some glorious strokes. Malan, meanwhile, composed his innings on patience. He was not as fierce as Crawley, but relied on bowlers’ mistakes to hit the ball to the ropes. England chased down the target in 21.5 overs.
Brief scores: Pakistan 141 in 35.2 overs (Fakhar Zaman 47; Saqib Mahmood 4-42) lost to England 142/1 in 21.5 overs (Dawid Malan 68*; Shaheen Shah Afridi 1-22) by 9 wickets with 169 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Saqib Mahmood.