The second ODI between the England and Pakistan women’s teams should be in full swing at the moment, but the weather has intervened in no uncertain terms and the radio people have delivered their verdict on the likelihood of their being any resumption of play by switching over to the IPL final between Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kolkata Knight Riders. Yesterday the England and Pakistan men’s sides contested a T20I and I will look back at that. While I have been typing this post and then preparing it for publication news has come through that the match in Taunton has been abandoned.
A COMFORTABLE WIN
For much of their innings England looked set to score over 200 from their 20 overs, but a poor last five overs prevented that. They ended with 183 to defend, an innings built around a blistering 84 from Jos Buttler. Moeen Ali bowled four of the first nine overs of the Pakistan reply, and collected 2-26, a splendid effort, especially given that the second of those wickets was that of Babar Azam, Pakistan’s best batter. Pakistan never got on terms with the target, and the final margin was 23 runs. Jofra Archer returned to action, and was very impressive and indubitably fully fit for action. If there is a problem with this England line up it is that the only front line batter who bats left handed is Moeen Ali, which means that England either have to send six successive right handers to the crease, or promote him up the order to break the sequence.
PHOTOGRAPHS
It has not been the best weather for photography recently, but I do have a gallery to share…