England are 2-0 up on Pakistan and on the verge of a series win as the teams prepare for the fourth One Day International which takes place at Nottingham on Friday.
England took a 2-0 lead with a 6 wicket victory at Bristol on Tuesday. Pakistan batted first and they will have been delighted with their total of 358/9 with Imam-ul-Haq the star performer with 151. Chris Woakes took 4 wickets in his 10 overs at a cost of 67 runs.
In the chase Bairstow and Roy got well on top of the asking rate. They put on 159 for the first stick in just 17.3 overs before Roy fell for 72. Bairstow went on to make 128, Root added 43 and Moeen Ali was unbeaten on 46 as England got up with 5.1 overs to spare.
Earlier in the series rain put paid to any chance of a result in the opener and England won the second contest by 12 runs at Southampton.
Batting first England posted 373/3. Jason Roy (87) and Jonny Bairstow (51) put on 115 for the first wicket and Joe Root added another 40. The acceleration later in the innings came from Eoin Morgan who hit 71 off 48 balls and Jos Buttler who smashed 110 off just 55 deliveries including 9 of his sides 13 sixes.
Fakhar Zaman led the chase for Pakistan, top scoring with 138 off 106 balls. There were 50’s for Barbar Azam and Asif Ali and Safaraz was unbeaten on 41 at the end but Pakistan had just too much to do despite a very respectable total of 361/7.
This was how the teams lined up at Bristol on Tuesday
England: Eoin Morgan, Liam Plunkett, Joe Denly, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Tom Curran
Pakistan:
Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Junaid Khan, Haris Sohail, , Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Fakhar Zaman, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi
After this the series concludes in Leeds on Sunday..
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 85 times in this format with England winning 51 and Pakistan 31 with 3 no results.
The Betting, - Click here for all markets
England 7/20
Pakistan 9/4
Note prices quoted are correct at the time of publication but are subject to change.
Verdict:
England skipper Eoin Morgan is suspended for this game after a slow over rate at Bristol but it’s still very hard to oppose the home side with such firepower in their batting line up.
This is usually a high scoring ground and for a betting interest we take a player from each side to score a 50, namely Joe Root and Pakistan’s Babar Azam.
Bets: Batsman to score a Fifty in the match, Joe Root? (yes) 5/4
Batsman to score a Fifty in the match, Babar Azam? (yes) 2/1
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