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England beat Pakistan by three wickets to complete 3-0 ODI series whitewash

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England completed a 3-0 series whitewash over Pakistan after winning by three wickets at Edgbaston.

Babar Azam fired a superb 158 for the tourists, but James Vince responded with 102 for England which saw them chase the 332 runs required for victory.

England named the same side that played in the previous two ODIs and had impressed throughout the series thus far.

Pakistan themselves were unchanged from Saturday, despite being bowled out for 195.

Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to field first after how successful they were opening with the ball in the first ODI.

Things started brightly for England as they picked up the wicket of Fakhar Zaman inside five overs as Zak Crawley pulled off a top catch.

Imam-ul-Haq was looking impressive before he was undone by a superb delivery from Matty Parkinson that spun back 12 degrees and into his stumps.

A superb stand of 179 between Mohammad Rizwan and Babar fired Pakistan to 292-2, before Brydon Carse eventually made the breakthrough as John Simpson behind the stumps caught down low.

It was that wicket that triggered a flurry of wickets for England as Carse picked up the wickets of Sohaib Maqsood and Hassan Ali for eight and four respectively.

Saqib Mahmood then followed in Carse’s footsteps as first he bowled Faheem Ashraf for 20, before dismissing Shadab Khan for a first-ball duck.

Babar’s innings, his highest in international cricket, ended in the final over and in the process gave Carse a maiden five-for in ODI cricket.

Shaheen Shah Afridi was the last man to depart as he picked out Vince as Pakistan’s innings ended on 331-9.

England’s opening over of the chase began in rapid fashion as Phil Salt struck 16 off of Shaheen’s first over to give them the fast start they needed.

A bizarre start to the following over saw three consecutive wide balls from Hassan, before a superb comeback saw him claim the wicket of Dawid Malan as he adjudged to have nicked behind to Rizwan.

Malan chose not to review the decision, but replays showed he had not touched the ball on the way through to Rizwan and was wrongly given out.

Salt continued an impressive attacking innings before Haris Rauf struck to end his innings on 37, and he struck again as he bowled Crawley for a well-made 39.

The Pakistani fielding was questionable throughout the game and they gave Stokes two lifelines as he was dropped twice, but it would not be third time lucky as Shadab Khan finally got his man and Rizwan held on.

With Vince still in and looking comfortable, there was real hope he could build an innings, but needed support from his remaining partners.

Simpson sadly could only add three to the total before he was dismissed for lbw meaning that the all-rounder Lewis Gregory came in.

It would be this pair that would really take the game away from Pakistan as they added 129 runs together which saw Vince reach his maiden ODI century, with Gregory also making an impressively made 77.

Vince innings ended on 102 as he played a rare poor shot which was easily held by Babar, and Gregory soon followed as he launched one up in the air and Shadab easily held.

Craig Overton and Carse saw off the remaining 29 runs required comfortably, with Carse winning the match with a boundary. 

Vince was awarded man of the match for his game deciding knock of 102, whilst man of the series went to Saqib Mahmood for his nine wickets throughout the series.

The attention now turns to the three-match T20 series, which begins on Friday at Trent Bridge with a 6:30pm start.

By Josh Mann

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