INTRODUCTION

The final ODI between England and Pakistan has reached its halfway stage. I will look at that and other stuff in this post.

CRICKET STUFF

England departed from their usual practice and decided to bat first after winning the toss at Headingley. They have amassed 351-9 from their 50 overs, a good but by no means unassailable total. Big scores from Joe Root and Eoin Morgan were at the heart of things, and there were contributions all down the order. Shaheen Shah Afridi took four wickets but paid dearly for them (82 being hit of his ten overs). The real bowling star was Imad Wasim with 3-53 from his 10 overs. This is a close one to call, but I think England have just enough on the board and will defend this total.

Elsewhere Afghanistan bowled Ireland out for 210 and have just started their reply. Paul Stirling made 71 and William Porterfield 51. Fast bowler Dawlat Zadran and medium fast bowler Aftab Alam each took three wickets and highly rated legspinner Rashid Khan took 2-45 from his full 10 overs.

Pakistan Women have won a T20 match against Pakistan with four wickets and two balls to spare. Tazmin Brits made 70 not out for South Africa and had support from Nadine De Klerk (36) and Sune Luus (28 not out). Offspinner Rameen Shamim took 1-20 from her four overs and while medium pacer Aliya Riaz took 1-26 from her four. Pakistan lost their top three cheaply but Iram Javed (55) with good support from all-rounders Nida Dar (32) and Riaz (30) did the job. South Africa’s opening bowlers Shabnim Ismail (2-12) and Mosaline Daniels (3-13) were outstanding but none of the other bowlers did anything.

Update: I am now rather more confident of England’s ability to defend their score as Chris Woakes has bagged three quick wickets, thus far without cost.

The cricket section of the BBC website is offering you the opportunity to pick your all-time England ODI team – click the screenshot of mine below to do so:

The overall most popular selections will be announced on The Tuffers and Vaughan show tomorrow (unfortunately I shall be in bed by then, but I will look it up on Tuesday).

RAINBOW

This appeared outside my bungalow yesterday evening…

MORE STAMPS

I have been continuing to mount my stamps.:

FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…