World Cup: England lose final warm-up match despite Joe Root's 85
Wednesday 11 February 2015 16:27, UK
Pakistan's Misbah-ul-Haq and Umar Akmal shared a century stand to condemn England to a four-wicket defeat in their final warm-up game ahead of the World Cup.
Skipper Misbah (91no off 99 balls) and Akmal (65) put on 133 for the fourth wicket at the Sydney Cricket Ground to propel their side past England’s 250-8, which featured 85 off 89 balls from Joe Root.
The Yorkshire batsman struck just four fours and a six in his innings, sharing a third-wicket stand of 66 with Gary Ballance, who scored 57 in his first game of the tour.
Ballance’s call-up was one of four changes made to the side that demolished the West Indies on Monday, with Alex Hales also making his first appearance of the trip and seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad returning to the side.
Chris Woakes, who took five wickets against the West Indies, was rested along with Ian Bell, James Taylor and Steven Finn.
Opener Moeen Ali fell early on after England had opted to bat, caught at cover off the bowling of Ehsan Adil via a leading edge, but Hales and Ballance rallied with a stand of 64 off 86 balls.
Hales eased his way to 31 before picking out midwicket off Shahid Afridi’s bowling, the spinner also picking up the wicket of Ballance who was caught at deep square-leg shortly after reaching his fifty.
Captain Eoin Morgan’s lean trot continued – he has now scored just two runs in his last four innings after falling for a third-ball duck, all be it in unfortunate circumstances as his attempted sweep off Yasir Shah ended up in the hands of Younis Khan at slip.
Shah also picked up the wicket of Ravi Bopara, who struggled to find his timing in an innings of 11 from 25 balls before being bowled and Jos Buttler (11) was also castled cheaply when he failed to dig out a yorker from Sohail Khan, making the score 184-6.
Chris Jordan (31no off 27) provided some much-needed impetus at the back end of the innings, striking Afridi for 10 off two balls in the 46th over in a seventh-wicket stand of 60 in 8.1 overs before Root fell in the penultimate over, caught at short fine leg.
Pakistan’s chase got off to a stodgy start as Broad struck with his first ball, forcing Nasir Jamshed to edge to Tredwell at second slip. Anderson then got in on the act, Tredwell again pouching a chance offered by Ahmed Shehzad.
A score of 10-2 became 43-3 when Jordan hurried Younus Khan with a short ball and Ballance dove forward at fine leg to take the catch, the same fielder also snaffling a chance offered by Haris Sohail (33) at long on.
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Misbah brought up his half-century off 53 balls by hitting Moeen for six and Pakistan looked well-placed with 14 overs to go, needing a further 99 more to win.
Akmal’s fifty – which came up with a six off Jordan – took 54 deliveries but one boundary later he edged Broad behind to renew English hopes.
But with Pakistan needing little more than a run-a-ball from the final five overs, Sohaib Maqsood’s 20 off 12 balls ensured that Misbah’s efforts weren’t in vain - the batting side getting home with seven balls left thanks to a brace of boundaries from Shahid Afridi meaning that England will go into their World Cup opener on Saturday against Australia off the back of a defeat.
Watch each and every game of the ICC Cricket World Cup on our dedicated channel, Sky Sports World Cup, starting with New Zealand against Sri Lanka from 10pm on Friday 13 February.
Before then don’t miss our World Cup Preview Show, with Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan, from 8pm on Friday on the same channel.
