Pak vs Eng: Michael Vaughan calls Pakistan’s performance in first ODI ‘pathetic’

By
Sports Desk
|
Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan.
Ex-England captain Michael Vaughan.

CARDIFF: Former England captain Michael Vaughan Thursday slammed the Pakistan cricket team over a poor show during the first ODI against England and called the green shirts' performance “pathetic”.

Vaughan hailed the home team for thrashing the green shirts in the opening match to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

“For England to rock up only yesterday as a team and perform like they did tells us so much about the culture of the white ball team .. very very impressive,” he tweeted after Ben Stokes and co defeated Pakistan by nine wickets.

“.. for Pakistan they were PATHETIC .. Its the only way to describe a performance like that,” he added.

The visitors were favourites heading into the match as the hosts had suffered a setback when seven members of their squad tested positive for COVID-19 and a completely new team was announced for the series.

"Love watching Pakistan play cricket … A team that can beat any team in the world on any given day but also lose to any team on any given day," Vaughan had said soon after the match started.

Match report

Set a 142-run target, England romped home in the 22nd over courtesy unbeaten half-centuries by Dawid Malan and debutant Zak Crawley on Thursday.

The two had added 120 runs for the second-wicket after Shaheen Shah Afridi had dismissed Malan’s opening partner Phil Salt for seven runs. Malan had struck eight fours in his 68 off 69 balls while the right-handed Crawley hit seven fours in his 58-run effort off 50 balls.

Earlier, Pakistan were bowled out for 141 runs in 35.2 overs after England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Opener Imam-ul-Haq was dismissed lbw by pacer Saqib Mahmood on the first ball of the match. Skipper Babar Azam was also dismissed for a duck two balls later as Pakistan slipped to zero for two after the first three balls of the match.

The tourists lost wickets at regular intervals with Fakhar Zaman the only one to offer some sustained resistance. The left-hander had scored 47 off 67 balls (six fours).

Shadab Khan contributed 30 off 43 balls. Sohaib Maqsood who was making a comeback to the national side after five years, scored 19 off 32 before an unfortunate run-out dismissal.

For England Saqib took four wickets for 42 runs in 10 overs. Craig Overton and Matt Parkinson took two wickets each.

The second ODI will be played at Lord’s on Saturday, 10 July.