Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram was disappointed to see the way Pakistan’s batting line-up collapsed against a massively inexperienced England team in the opening One Day International (ODI) of the three-match series in Cardiff on Thursday (July 8).
Put to bat first, Pakistan were bowled out for 141 inside 36 overs with Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam scoring ducks and Fakhar Zaman top-scoring with 47. For England, Saqib Mahmood (4/42), Craig Overton (2/23), and Matt Parkinson (2/28) were the best bowlers in Cardiff.
Later, Dawid Malan (68*) and Zak Crawley (58*) guided England to an easy victory of 9 wickets in 28.1 overs with more than half the innings remaining to take a 1-0 lead in the ODI series against Pakistan.
Reacting to Pakistan’s poor batting performance in the first ODI against England, Akram said the Men in Green couldn’t blame lack of practice for such a dramatic collapse on Thursday while hoping they would impress in the second ODI starting on Saturday, July 10 at Lord’s.
Akram said while speaking during the innings break on Ten Sports: “I can't say that this happened due to lack of practice as these guys have been playing PSL recently. I hope it’s just a one-off.”
The legendary pacer was also not happy with the dismissal of Imam, who fell for a duck off the very first ball of the innings having struck plumb in front of the wicket, saying the shot selection on that delivery could have been better from the left-handed opener.
He signed off by saying, “Imamul Haq played across the line on the very first ball. It was obvious that the bowlers will get some assistance early on and he would have been better off if he had played the ball with a straight bat.”
