England beat Pakistan by 52 runs in the second ODI at Lord's to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series; Phil Salt (60) bludgeoned his way to a maiden ODI fifty as the hosts post 247 before Lewis Gregory (3-44) and Saqib Mahmood impressed in bowling the tourists out for 195
Saturday 10 July 2021 23:20, UK
A maiden one-day international fifty from Phil Salt helped a much-changed England side clinch a memorable series win over Pakistan with victory at Lord’s.
Having won the opening game by nine wickets in Cardiff, England triumphed by 52 runs in their first one-day game at Lord's since the World Cup final in 2019 in front of a sell-out crowd.
Salt (60 from 54 balls) and James Vince (56 from 52) put on 97 in quick time for the third wicket and despite a mini-collapse mid-innings, a stand of 69 between Lewis Gregory (40) and Brydon Carse (31) enabled the hosts to reach 247 before the last wicket went down in the 46th over.
Hasan Ali finished with 5-51 as Pakistan restricted England to a very chaseable total but Saqib Mahmood (2-21) impressed again with the new ball and the tourists slumped to 36-3.
Pakistan were eventually bowled out for 195 in 41 overs, Saud Shakeel top-scoring with 56, leaving England to celebrate victory on the occasion of stand-in skipper Ben Stokes' 100th ODI.
Rain delayed the start and saw the game shortened to 47 overs-a-side and after being put in under leaden skies, England's top order was quickly under pressure as Dawid Malan and Zak Crawley, both of whom hit unbeaten half-centuries in the first ODI, departed with scoring.
Malan edged to second slip off Hasan Ali before Crawley was bowled first ball by a near-perfect yorker from Shaheen Afridi (1-37).
The personnel of the England team may have changed for this series but the approach remained the same with Salt and Vince mounting an impressive counter-attack to take the home side out of trouble.
With Pakistan's seamers unable to find any real consistency, Salt hit 10 boundaries on the way to a 41-ball fifty, muscling the ball to all parts of the ground, while Vince, showing his usual elegance, made it to his second ODI half-century in a mere 36 balls.
The introduction of spin ended England's fun with Salt bowled round his legs by Shakeel (1-14) before Shadab Khan (1-46) bowled Vince with a googly that skidded through the gate to hit middle stump.
Stokes (22) provided a few brief fireworks, including smashing Shakeel over the legside for six, before he was bowled after charging Hasan and John Simpson (17) followed in the seamer's next over.
When Craig Overton nicked behind three balls later, England were 160-7 and 200 suddenly seemed a long way off but Gregory and Carse kept their cool and gradually built a valuable partnership as a highly eventful innings took another turn.
By the time Gregory holed out off Haris Rauf (2-54), the pair had achieved the highest eighth-wicket partnership in an ODI at Lord's and, although they failed to bat their overs, England had something to bowl at.
Pakistan lost Imam-ul-Haq (1) early for the second match running, the left-hander edging Gregory's first ball behind.
Captain Babar Azam (19) came in and quickly showed his class with four boundaries before, for the second game in a row, he was undone by Mahmood; the England fast bowler getting the ball to nip back and trap the right-hander plumb in front.
Having got Babar with the one that seamed in, Mahmood ousted Mohammad Rizwan (5) with the ball that nipped away to find a feather of an edge through to Simpson.
The usually free-scoring Fakhar Zaman survived for nearly 14 overs but cut a frustrated figure throughout as he could muster only 10 from 44 balls before the 45th, from Overton, clattered into his stumps.
Shakeel and Sohaib Maqsood (19) threatened to develop a telling partnership but the latter fell to Overton (2-39) the over after hitting the same bowler for two sixes.
It was a similar story for Shadab (21), caught at third man off Gregory after laying a decent foundation with Shakeel and when Faheem Ashraf (1) fell to Matt Parkinson, courtesy of a brilliant piece of wicketkeeping by Simpson, anticipating the paddle sweep and taking a superb catch down leg, Pakistan's race looked run.
Hasan Ali (31 from 17) took 22, including three sixes on the spin, from a Parkinson over to keep the visitors in the game but was playing a high-risk game and eventually top-edged a pull shot down to Overton at fine leg to give Carse (1-44) a maiden ODI wicket.
There was further resistance from Shakeel and Shaheen, the pair adding 40 for the fourth wicket, but eventually the run-rate started to climb.
Shakeel decided to try and take on the leg-spin of Parkinson (2-42) but his slog-sweep was down the throat of Overton at deep midwicket and it was left to Gregory to finish it off for England when he had Rauf caught behind down the legside.
Watch the third ODI between England and Pakistan live on Sky Sports Cricket from 12.30pm on Tuesday.
