Rain ended England’s run of seven straight limited-overs defeats as the first one-day international against Pakistan ended in a no-result at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Wednesday.
Pakistan, chasing a revised target of 159 in 32 overs after a rain break of an hour-and-a-quarter, were 46 for one off seven overs when a second downpour ended the match.
Although the tourists were ahead of the required run rate, they had to bat for a minimum of 20 overs for this day/night fixture, the opening contest of a five-game series, to be deemed a match.
Mohammad Hafeez was 18 not out and Younis Khan 12 not out.
During their current home season England had lost a Twenty20 and five full one-day internationals against Sri Lanka before Monday’s five-wicket Twenty20 defeat against Pakistan at Bristol.
This series continues with a day match at Lord’s on Saturday.
England had earlier been bowled out for 202, featuring Ian Bell’s one-day international best of 88, after Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq won the toss and chose to field.
”It’s not the way we wanted to stop the run of defeats,” Bell told reporters. ”We believe we can compete with Pakistan in this series and we’re excited about Lord’s.”
Mohammad Asif, who ripped through England’s top order, finished with an impressive three for 28 off a maximum 10 overs.
And fellow quick Shoaib Akhtar, who returned to international action after a stress fracture of the left ankle on Monday, had three for 45 off 10.
Bell, who hit three hundreds in the recent Test series against Pakistan, said: ”It went pretty well today [Wednesday].”
”I tried to carry on my form from the Test matches,” added the Warwickshire right-hander, whose innings surpassed his previous one-day best of 80 against minnows and World Cup qualifiers Ireland in June.
”That was the best I’ve played in one-day cricket for England,” insisted Bell, making his 19th appearance at this level.
Pakistan suffered a setback in the second over when Stuart Broad, on his one-day international debut, had Shoaib Malik lbw for five with his fourth legitimate ball at this level to leave the visitors for one.
At the other end Darren Gough, England’s most successful one-day international bowler with 235 wickets and playing his first match at this level in more than a year, saw Hafeez top-edge a hook over the slips for four and next ball force him to the backward point boundary.
Bell’s was the only individual England score above James Dalrymple’s 27.
Dropped on nine and 68, Bell shared stands of 57 with Paul Collingwood (14) and 68 with Dalrymple.
But a last-wicket stand of 29 between Gough and Broad was needed to take England past 200.
Asif ripped through England’s top order with a spell of three wickets for 12 runs in 26 balls.
The best of his treble came when Asif, spotting Kevin Pietersen advancing down the pitch, bowled a bouncer that hit the South Africa-born batsman.
Next ball, Asif cleverly bowled a full-length delivery that cut away and Pietersen’s edge was well caught by the diving Akmal for two.
Then a single off leg-spinner Afridi took Bell to a 71-ball 50 with nine fours.
Pakistan, though, then had a purple patch of three wickets for one run in eight balls.
Bell pushed Akhtar on to the onside but was run out by Afridi’s direct hit from mid-on, having faced 117 balls with 12 fours.
Next ball, 166 for five became 166 for six when Dalrymple was bowled by Akhtar. The innings ended with four balls to spare when Gough holed out to Afridi for 18. — Sapa-AFP