Pakistan thrashed

Marcus Trescothick and James Anderson starred as England gained revenge for their Old Trafford defeat in an emphatic manner.

Right from the off England were on the front foot, as after Rashid Latif won the toss and elected to bat, Anderson trapped Imran Nzir leg before wicket with the first of the match.

First match hero Mohammed Hafeez and Yasir Hameed were faced with a rebuilding task, and they batted well to add 37 before Andrew Flintoff, who bowled superbly for no reward on his home ground, caught Hafeez on the back foot for a second Leg Before Wicket decision.

At the 15 over mark, Pakistan were on just 50-2, and England's 3 seamers were bowling well.

After the drinks interval, Anthony McGrath got his first bowl in One Day International Cricket, and in his first over, a big confusion almost led to Hameed being run out. He survived that scare, but in the next over he inside edged the ball onto his stumps off Gough, and the 3rd wicket was down.

Danger man Younis Khan faced just one ball, a peach of a delivery that induced the edge to Chris Read and Pakistan were 61-4.

3 slips went in for the hat-trick ball, but Gough was unable to become the first Englishman in ODI history to take one, as Shoaib Malik was resolute in defence.

Unfortunately for Malik though, he didn't last long as Jim Troughton ran him out with the help of the third umpire and Pakistan were rocking at 73-5.

The captain came in to join Yousuf Youhana, but neither Ashley Giles or McGrath were giving anything away, and Vikram Solanki took a fine catch at the second attempt off Latif to give McGrath his first ODI wicket and reduce Pakistan to 80-6 from 26 overs.

Big hitting was needed from somewhere, and Azhar Mahmood was the man for the job. He carried his superb Surrey form over to the International arena, and the pair were scoring at a run a ball for the majority of their 72 run stand, before another fine catch from Solanki gave Rikki Clarke a wicket.

Michael Vaughan brought back Flintoff in an attempt to finish the innings off, but he wasn't able to, and with Clarke conceding runs rapidly, it was left to James Anderson to perform the necessary deeds, as he went one better than his opening partner Gough in ending the innings with a hat-trick, getting Abdul Razzaq caught at mid off, Shoaib Akhtar caught behind, and bowling Mohammed Sami with a real beauty to end up with figures of 4-27.

Pakistan were all out for 185 with fully 6 overs unused, thanks almost entirely to Youhana's undefeated 75, and they needed something special from the pace duo of the returning Akhtar and Sami if they were to get back into this game.

Something special did indeed happen, but alas for Latif's men, that something special was Marcus Trescothick.

An awesome display of hitting from the Somerset man actually started quite slowly as Shoaib opened up with an 8 ball over without a run off the bat, and Sami was fairly tight conceding just 3 from his first over.

Then it happened. Akhtar was crashed for 3 fours in 4 balls by Trescothick, and then followed up with a wild leg-side ball that evaded everything on the way to the boundary for 4 more. 18 off the over, and Azhar Mahmood was on.

He fared no better as Trescothick hit 3 more fours off him in 4 balls, and it was 37-0 off 4.

The fifty was soon up after 6 overs, before Tresocthick took 4 more boundaries off the next Sami over to move to 49 from just 34 balls.

He brought up his fifty off just 37 balls with a fierce cut for four off Hafeez, amazingly his 12th boundary in 8 overs.

It continued unabated as in Hafeez's next over he smashed the ball way over long off for a massive 6 before slicing Shoaib over third man for another maximum.

By the time he cover-drove Razzaq for 4 in the 12th over, Pakistan had all but lost the game, but Razzaq got the wicket with the next ball, Trescothick top-edging a pull to the keeper.

The score was 109-1, of which Solanki had scored a mere 8 and Trescothick 86 from 55 balls, of whiich 76 came in boundaries.

Akhtar's nightmare continued as Vaughan hit him twice for four, and Solanki finally began to get some of the strike.

When Pakistan were finally allowed to spread the field, it was 131-1, and England needed a mere 55 in the remaining 35 overs. Shoaib had by this stage bowled 6 overs for 52 runs, hardly the return he'd imagined!

He finally got a wicket, when Vaughan edged low to Younis Khan, and for good measure followed up by getting Troughton to edge through to Latif for a duck.

With England needing only 39 runs from 32 and a half overs, the last man Pakistan wanted to see coming in was Andrew Flintoff, but within a further 4 and a half overs it was finished, as Flintoffhit 3 boundaries in an over off Razzaq before ending the match in style by crashing 3 consectuive fours off Mahmood to end up 26 not out from a mere 13 balls, Solanki having batted through for an unbeaten 40, and Pakistan being humbled with fully 28 overs to go, the England scoring rate of 8.59 being more suited the the Twenty20 Cup than a One Day International.

Trescothick took the man of the match award, but spare a thought for Anderson, who's hat-trick got somewhat overshadowed by a brutal display.

Pakistan 185 (Youhana 75*, Anderson 4/27, Gough 2/28)
England 189-3 (Trescothick 86, Solanki 40*, Akhtar 2/69)

Posted by Marc