England brought down the curtains on their immensely forgettable World Cup campaign with the kind of batting performance that brought them success at the highest stage four years ago.
In what was also perhaps Ben Stokes’s last ODI innings, he fittingly led the way with a 76-ball 84 and consolidated on Jonny Bairstow’s tone-setting fifty to push England to 337 for 9. Pakistan had to chase that down in 6.4 overs to pip New Zealand to the semifinal spot, which they expectedly didn’t. Instead, their campaign came to an end in opposite fashion as they crashed and burned their way to 244 all out in 43.3 overs. With that win, England secured their qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy, to be played in Pakistan.
Stokes’s knock came in the company of Joe Root, who too got a half-century. The former captain had started the tournament with knocks of 77 and 82 against New Zealand and Bangladesh respectively, but has since endured an underwhelming run of scores until Saturday, where he and Stokes rebuilt England through the middle-overs after Pakistan found two key breakthroughs.
Stokes made Shaheen Afridi pay a hefty price for putting him down off his own bowling as he led the way in England’s aggressive batting in overs through 21 to 30. By the 34th over, he got his third successive fifty and looked set to sign off with a hundred, even as he seemed to struggle with his mobility. Root was also fairly brisk to reach his half-century as they dragged England from 108 for 2 in the 19th over to 240/2 in 40 overs.
Afridi put a dent on England’s progress by dismissing both in the space of two overs. First, he cleaned up Stokes with a hint of reverse swing on a full ball and then flummoxed Root with a slower one. Yet, this wasn’t the breather Pakistan were hoping for as Jos Buttler and Harry Brook threw their bats around for short cameos as England added 97 off the last 10 overs.
Pakistan came out for the chase with their backs completely against the wall, as they had an impossible qualification scenario to pip New Zealand to the semifinal spot. If that wasn’t already out of question, Pakistan made a wobbly start as David Willey got one to swing back into Abdullah Shafique and trapped him lbw in the first over. Pakistan’s top-order hope for big, quick runs – Fakhar Zaman – became Willey’s second wicket in the third over when he tamely hit to Stokes at mid-off. Shortly, New Zealand were officially confirmed to keep the fourth spot and meet India in the first semifinal on November 15 as Pakistan limped to 30/2 in 6.4 overs.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were slow in rebuilding the chase, and could only go as far as the 14th over. That’s when Pakistan captain’s poor World Cup came to a close as he hit one ball from Gus Atkinson to Adil Rashid at short mid-wicket. The prospect of another partnership was thwarted in the 23rd over, after which Pakistan were in complete free-fall. It came with Rizwan giving Moeen Ali the charge for a big shot and missing it completely to get bowled. 100 for 4 soon became 126 for 5 when Saud Shakeel couldn’t get his head around an Adil Rashid googly. From this position, Agha Salman counter-attacked but there wasn’t enough batting firepower in the middle and lower-order to support his endeavours.
Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan fell to spin for single-digit scores, reducing Pakistan to 150 for 7 in the 32nd over, after which Willey got to his 100th ODI wicket in his last appearance for England with the dismissal of Salman for 51. Shaheen Afridi struggled to read Rashid’s googlies but hung around enough to make 25 off 23. He was trapped leg before by Gus Atkinson that left Pakistan on the brink at 191 for 9 in the 38th over. The scenes that followed evoked chuckles even from the Pakistan dugout as the final-wicket pair of Mohammad Wasim Jr. and Haris Rauf swung their bats around with unexpected success, hitting four sixes and five fours between them in a 53-run stand. Rauf hit a 23-ball 35 with 30 of those coming in fours and sixes. In his attempt to add another to that tally, he holed to Stokes at long-on.
Brief Scores: England 337/9 in 50 overs (Ben Stokes 84, Joe Root 60; Haris Rauf 3-64) beat Pakistan 244 in 43.4 overs (Agha Salman 51, Babar Azam 38; David Willey 3-56, Adil Rashid 2-55) by 93 runs
