ENG vs PAK 1st ODI Match Report: England Vs Pakistan 1st ODI: England beat Pakistan in first ODI by 9 wickets at Cardiff

Pakistan cricket team had not played in difficult conditions for a long time. They were able to keep their critics shut with victories against the weaker teams, but on Thursday all came to the fore. In Cardiff, England took the field against Pakistan with a makeshift team with 5 new players and defeated them very easily by 9 wickets.

England was playing with a makeshift team due to the main team players getting infected with the corona virus, due to which five players made their ODI debuts in this match. While a player from Pakistan side, Saud made his career debut. Bryden Cars, Jacques Crowley, Lewis Gregory, Phil Salt and John Simpson made their ODI debuts for England.

In this first day-night one-day match, England had won the toss and called Pakistan to bat first, but the Pakistan team was reduced to just 141 runs in 35.2 overs. England’s Shakib Mahmood took four for 42 while Lewis Gregory and Matt Parkinson took two wickets each. Ben Stokes, captaining the team for the first time, was in the process of recovering from injury but was still playing in this match and bowled only one over.

Pakistan had lost their two wickets in the very first over. Maqsood had shown the way to the pavilion for Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq on the score of zero. Fakhar Zaman scored 47 runs and Shadab Khan scored 30 runs for Pakistan. Sohaib Maqsood was run out for 19 while Mohammad Rizwan made 13 and Shahin Shah Afridi made 12.

The England team, who came out to answer, got just a setback when opener Phil Salt, playing his first ODI, became a victim of Shaheen Afridi’s ball in the fifth over. Salt scored 7 runs. But after this David Malan and debutant Jack Crawley made no mistake and took their team to victory at the loss of 1 wicket in just 21.5 overs. Malan played an unbeaten 68 off 69 balls, hitting 8 fours. While Crowley played an unbeaten 58 off 50 balls which included 7 fours.