England stroll to victory

The visitors have taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series and whitewash is very much on the cards. Pakistan won the toss and made a couple of changes but result was the same. England once again outplayed Pakistan in a one-dayer as they scored 226 in 37.2 overs.

Pietersen scored his century off 93 balls and he celebrated it in style. Eoin Morgan remained undefeated on 24.

Cook and Pietersen hit Pakistani bowlers all over the park and England raced to 100 in 16.3 overs. They put on 170 runs in the opening partnership as Cook falied to score his third consecutive century in the ODI series.

Saeed Ajmal got Cook caught behind but not before he had scored 80 runs and put England on the brink of victory. Misbah-ul-Haq’s team looked disjointed as they dropped catches and leaked runs through overthrows.

Umar Gul’s poor form continued as he hurled a number of no balls as result English batsmen plundered runs at will. Gul gave away 15 runs in his one over.

Pakistan had won 13 out of the 12 ond-dayers prior to this series but it looked a staistics of the past. Pakistan made a couple of changes as Asad Shafiq and Adnan Akmal were brought in and Younis Khan and Abdul Reman were dropped. Earlier, Pakistan chose to bat and lost first wicket when Imran Farhat prodded at the outgoing delivery from Steven Finn and gave an easy catch to wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter.

liaqat@khaleejtimes.com