Mahmood To The Rescue

Mahmood
By Caroline
September 10 2006

Many people had written off England before they even played the first ODI, but those people have been proved wrong. Sajid Mahmood was England’s hero as they won the 5th ODI at Edgbaston and drew the series 2-2.

England won the toss and decided to field first which would prove to be the right decision as wicket keeper, Chris Read, ran out Farhat to set off what would be three wickets in just three overs. Lewis bowled Shahid Afridi while Mohammad Hafeez played a delivery from Mahmood onto his stumps making him the third one out.

Yousuf was caught out by Strauss, whilst Captain Inzamam was trapped LBW by bowler and batsman Paul Collingwood. Collingwood then proceeded to bowl A Razzaq as Yardy got Akmal out with a catch by Read. Younis Khan (47) was the top scorer for Pakistan but Dalrymple made sure he got out with a good catch from Joyce. Dalrymple also bowled Naved-ul-Hasan. I Anjum and M Asif ended the Pakistan innings both still being in with the maximum of 50 overs being played.

England were now chasing 154-9 which seemed easy but a stupid shot from Pieterson then lead to the rest dropping like flies, however Mahmood and Yardy saved England from defeat as it was left to the tail enders to help them to victory.

Ed Joyce was the first one to be bowled out by Asif with only 8 runs under his belt. Ian Bell shortly followed him with an unconvincing 2 runs, not at his best, but all bowlers should be credited as they gave it their all. Captain Andrew Strauss edged Anjum to a speedy Akmal diving to his left.

Pieterson came in to save the day with his usual strong shots and boundaries however this can be his downfall as he does often make the stupid mistake that gets him out, which is exactly what happened as he missed a sweep at Shahid Afridi's leg-spin to get him out.

After that they all started going, Dalrymple went for 0 being trapped for lbw. With Jamie gone Collingwood quickly followed with another lbw by Razzaq. The last to go was Read who was caught out by Naved-ul-Hasan.

Yardy (12) and Mahmood (22) put in an amazing performance at the end to secure England’s victory by 3 wickets.

It has been a fantastic ODI series, the strong have been separated from the weak but credit where it’s due, so well done to Pakistan and England on a fantastic ODI series!

England and Pakistan draw the series 2-2.