Ealham heals England wounds

Fraser, who was omitted from the team’s first two games, did the initial damage and then Ealham did the finishing job. In fact, Ealham was on a hat-trick at one stage, having dismissed Saqlain Mushtaq and Arshad Khan off successive deliveries in his 10th over, but Akhtar denied him thehonour. In the end, England managed to pack off the Pakistan challenge — number of overs were reduced to 48 as Pakistan had taken longer time to bowl their quota — in only 40.2 overs.

Salim Malik, playing only his second match in the series, remained unbeaten on 47 which included a cover-driven six off Vince Wells. As long as the experienced Malik was there in the middle, Pakistan had hopes of reaching the target. But Pakistan lost the last five wickets for the addition of only six runs in the space of 3.5 overs.

Pakistan lost the top half for only 91 runs with most of the batsmen playing reckless strokes and seemed to be in a hurry. Fraser and Ealham took advantage of the Pakistanis’ lacklustre batting display to run through the innings. Earlier, England won the toss and started unconvincingly as their top-order cracked under the pace of Shoaib Akhtar. By the 12th over, the openers were gone, Akhtar doing the damage. And they lost three more wickets by the 23rd over and were left only to put up adecent fight in the end.

Akhtar finished with his best One-day effort (4-37). Azhar Mahmood claimed two important wickets in the middle orders — Graeme Hick and Andrew Flintoff in the space of three deliveries.

It was left to left-handed Graham Thorpe to come to the rescue of his team with a fighting knock. Slow to start with, Thorpe gained in confidence and was not afraid to often step out and lift the bowlers over the fielders. He was finally dismissed by Akhtar’s pace, the ball crashing onto his wicket as the batsman shaped to play from the crease.

The Pakistanis, aware that they are already in the final, did not need to go all out today although there was no let-up on their part to maintain the pressure on the English batsmen. Pakistan rested opener Saeed Anwar and middle-order batsman Yousuf Yohanna and drafted in Wajahatullah Wasti and Salim Malik.SCOREBOARD
England R B 4/6
Knight c Akram b Akhtar 21 35 3/0 (Failed to keep on-drive down)
Stewart c Ijaz b Akhtar 11 33 0(Uppish drive taken at gully)
Wells (run out) 3 19 0 (Beaten by Ijaz’s throw from square-leg to bowler)
Hick b Mahmood 24 33 1/0 (In-cutter rattled stump)
Thorpe b Akhtar 62 80 3/0 (Played within crease, yorked)
Flintoff b Mahmood 0 2 0 (Missed line of straight delivery)
Fairbrother c Wasti b Arshad Khan 25 38 1/0 (Lofted drive was taken at long-off fence)
Ealham b Akhtar 36 47 2/0 (Missed line completely)
Austin (run out) 1 1 0 (Failed to beat Malik’s throw from mid-wicket to keeper)
Gough c Afridi b Saqlain 5 8 0 (lofted shot was taken at long-off)
Fraser (not out) 0 0 0
Extras (lb6, nb2, w5): 13
Total (all out, 49.3 overs): 206
Fall of wickets: 1-42 (Knight, 9.4), 2-43 (Stewart, 11.3), 3-60 (Wells, 17.3), 4-86 (Hick, 22.3), 5-86 (Flintoff, 22.5), 6-129 (Fairbrother, 33.3), 7-192 (Thorpe, 46.1), 8-193 (Austine, 46.3), 9-206 (Ealham, 49).

Bowling:

Akram 7-0-25-0, Akhtar 10-1-37-4, Saqlain 9.1-0-41-1, Azhar 10-1-37-2, Arshad 9-0-40-0, Afridi4-0-20-0.

Pakistan R B 4/6
Wasti c Thorpe b Fraser 31 52 4/0 (Went off Angled bat to slip)
Afridi c Wells b Gough 3 10 0 (Uppish drive straight into cover’s hands)
Ijaz c Knight b Fraser 16 13 3 (Skier stuck between thighs of point fielder)
Inzamam lbw Fraser 5 14 0 (Rapped on the right pad while trying to work on the leg-side)
Malik not out 47 77 1/1 Azhar Mahmood c Wells b Ealham 13 21 2/0 (Drove without getting to the pitch)
Moin b Flintoff 23 37 1/1 (Ball came into him as he shaped to push forward)
Akram lbw Ealham 2 6 0 (Hit on the front foot playing a defensive shot)
Saqlain b Ealham 0 7 0 (Went for a sweep)
Arshad lbw Ealham 0 1 0 (Pushed forward and missed line)
Akhtar c Wells b Flintoff 0 2 0
Extras (lb1, nb1, w2) 4
Total (all out, 40.2 overs): 144
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Afridi, 4.1), 2-24 (Ijaz, 7.5), 3-55 (Haq, 13.2),
4-72 (Wasti, 15.3), 5-91 (Azhar, 23.4), 6-138 (Moin, 36.3), 7-141 (Akram, 38), 8-143 (Saqlain, 39.4), 9-143(Arshad, 39.5)
Bowling: Gough 8-1-39-1, Fraser 10-2-32-3, Austine 8-0-21-0, Ealham 10-0-30-4, Wells 2-0-18-0, Flintoff 2.2-0-3-2.

Result: England won by 62 runs.
Man of the match: Mark Ealham.