The last time Pakistan won an ODI series in England was around 42 years back, in 1974
Pakistan had the world’s best bowling attack and that their batting was fragile. But the national team proved it wrong in the third One-day International against England at Trent Bridge last week when their ‘strong bowling attack’ conceded a record 444 runs.
Pakistan managed to take only three wickets. The previous highest team total in One-Day International was 443 by Sri Lanka against the Netherlands at Amstelveen in 2006.
England’s 1992 World Cup runners-up were regarded as their best one-day team but the current team has been in outstanding form in the shorter version of the game and outclassed the touring Pakistan team.
Of the last twelve ODIs between the two countries, England have won 11. The only they lost was in Abu Dhabi last year. Since then, they have won six in a row.
No doubt Azhar Ali is a solid batsman of Test cricket, but one-day cricket requirements are different. It demands aggression and Azhar is not aggressive neither as opening batsman nor as skipper.
Azhar admitted that their performance in the third ODI was terrible. The wicket was really good and there were lots of runs in it, but 444 is too much in any conditions. "A few no-balls and fielding lapses really cost us," said the skipper.
Earlier, the management and the captain Azhar had insisted that they were better than their No 9 ranking would suggest. Azhar still believes that as a team "we are not that bad but we need to learn quickly otherwise we’ll prove ourselves wrong".
It would be better for Azhar to step down and concentrate on Test cricket like Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan are doing. The longest version of the game suits his style of play.
At Trent Bridge, it was the first occasion that a team scored over 400 runs against Pakistan. The previous highest total 392-6, scored by South Africa at Centurion in 2006-07.
It was the ninth consecutive ODI series loss in England for Pakistan.
The last time Pakistan won an ODI series in England was around 42 years back, in 1974.
England reached 200 in the 30th over and around 350 was expected. But opener Alex Hales hit 171 -- the highest ODI score by an English batsmen -- set the platform and later Joe Root (85), Jos Buttler (90 off just 51 balls) and Eoin Morgan (27-ball 57) provided England a perfect finish with 240 runs in the last 20 overs.
England’s 400 runs came in 46.2 overs. It was the joint-fastest 400 runs in terms of overs. South Africa also completed 400 runs in as many overs in their famous win against Australia in 2006.
Hales and Root shared record 248 runs second-wicket partnership. It was also the highest partnership for any wicket against Pakistan. The previous best was between South Africa’s Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers (238 runs) at the Wanderers in 2012-13.
Pakistan’s Wahab Riaz conceded 110 runs in his 10 overs. It was the most expensive bowling ever from any Pakistani bowler. He was just three runs behind 113 conceded by Australian fast bowler Mick Lewis against South Africa at the Wanderers in 2005-06.
England also equaled the most boundaries record in an ODI innings as their batsmen hit 59 boundaries -- 16 sixes and 43 fours. Sri Lankan batsmen also hit 59 boundaries -- three sixes and 56 fours -- against the Netherlands when they made 443 runs.
Veteran Shoaib Malik is also past his prime. He performs well against low-profile teams, but against the top teams he fails miserably.
In the first three ODIs, he scored just 46 runs, averaging 15.33. He was also unimpressive as a bowler as he remained wicket-less and conceded 79 runs in 10 overs.
In 14 ODIs in England, Malik has scored only 145. He has never scored a 50 there.
Only wicket-keeper batsman Sarfraz Ahmed has shown some consistency, with 198 runs in three matches, including one hundred and one fifty.
Mohammad Amir’s 58 was the highest score from a No 11 batsman from Pakistan. But as a bowler, Amir was disappointing on his return tour, though he remained unlucky on many occasions when fielders dropped catches off his bowling, but overall his performance was unimpressive.
For his sole wicket in the first three ODIs, Amir conceded 144 runs. Yasir Shah conceded 110 runs in two matches without taking any wicket.
NOTE: All statistics are updated till the third ODI.