Cricket remains an endlessly fascinating and puzzling game. How to explain things?
This was the team that does not lose at home against a team on an 11-match one-day international losing streak; the tournament favourites against a team who had been humbled in an opening match that had lasted little more than three hours. A loss, somehow, for the team that had just beaten their opponents 4-0 in a series a fortnight ago and that were returning to their most favoured ground of all, where they had set two world records.
The answer lies in the unpredictable nature of sport, of course, and the mercurial, maddening nature of the Pakistan team, this collection of highly talented cricketers who, no matter how badly they have been playing, always remain a threat. With a leg spinner and two skilful left-armers in their ranks, lifted by batsmen who showed the World Cup their best face at last and with a proud history and fanatical support to help them through, how could they not be a threat?
More than that, there was an obvious desperation to Pakistan’s cricket. They knew that they had let their supporters down in the defeat by West Indies last Friday and they returned to how they play at their best; with carefree abandon, aggressive with bat and ball, so that, despite hundreds for England’s classiest batsman, Joe Root, and their most destructive, Jos Buttler, the match was always on a knife-edge.
Teetering on it, England slipped the wrong side when Root and then Buttler carved to short third man with time ticking away, the latter the ball after bringing up his hundred, so that the tail was left with too much to do.
This was a very different Pakistan line-up from the one that England had beaten heavily last month. Back to stiffen the bowling ranks were Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz, the former stymied by chickenpox recently, the latter by the feeling that Pakistan had younger hopefuls but who, after a brilliant month in the Pakistan Super League, had been recalled at the last minute. There was the leg spinner, Shadab Khan, who had been suffering with hepatitis during the one-day series but who was fit enough yesterday to take the new ball, dismiss Jason Roy with it and lift Pakistan in the field.
Afterwards, Eoin Morgan thought that his team were outfielded, and that the 15-20 runs they gifted Pakistan through fumbles and overthrows, as well as through the simple skier put down at long-off by Roy when Mohammad Hafeez had 14, were the difference between the teams. It was a fair summation, despite four catches for Chris Woakes, two of them excellent dives in the deep. Hafeez made a breezy 84, pushing Pakistan’s total to the point where England needed a World Cup record to win.
With Bangladesh beating South Africa on Sunday, England overturned here and Pakistan resurgent, there may be much about this tournament that will be hard to predict. At least Morgan’s decision to field at the outset was predictable enough, given his team’s strength in chasing at home and given the nature of the pitch, which was as flat as the two on which they had posted world-record scores. Mind you, chasing 349 in a largely irrelevant one-day series is different from chasing in a World Cup match with consequences in defeat.
There were many aspects to Pakistan’s revival but a key one, the opening partnership between Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq, will probably go unacknowledged. Yet, with England unleashing Mark Wood alongside Jofra Archer, and given how meekly Pakistan had succumbed to West Indies’ quick bowlers on a pitch only ten yards away, their partnership of 82 for the first wicket settled the inevitable nerves in their dressing room.
Fakhar is a dangerous player who looks like one to take to the trenches, strong and fearless in his approach and clearly willing on the big occasion. Imam, batting in glasses, looks the more studious type but they combined well, marking a half-century together within eight overs and setting a solid base on which Pakistan’s talented middle order could build.
First among equals in that regard is Babar Azam, a batsman with nine ODI hundreds in only 64 innings and a player who, like Root, always seems to have 20 on the board in no time, so busy is he from the off. Babar was helped considerably by Hafeez, an experienced performer at 38 years of age but who yesterday batted with the dash of a youngster. He charged at his first ball, thrashed it over the off side and rolled back the years after that, his half-century coming in a rollicking 39 balls.
Although Moeen Ali enjoyed the strong cross-breeze to pick up three wickets, the rest of England’s out-cricket felt below par. Archer endured a more difficult day than his World Cup debut at the Oval, conceding 79 runs from his allocation. No bowler finds life easy at Trent Bridge, with the flat, grassless pitch and the boundaries that have been shaved at the corners presenting a tricky combination, and England as a result began their run chase with optimism.
Once again, though, an early wicket fell to leg spin as Roy swept at a ball that was too full and departed with a volley ringing in his ears from Pakistan’s fielders. Even though Jonny Bairstow and Root, dashing between the wickets, added 48 for the second wicket it always felt that Pakistan’s attack were offering more threat than a month ago, a point reinforced when Bairstow edged a lifter from Wahab.
Morgan, briefly, looked unsettled by the short ball and after Ben Stokes had edged a cut behind, the stage was left to Root and Buttler who, gloriously, added 130 for the fifth wicket. Root, seemingly, has made peace with how he plays now in one-day cricket, gliding, caressing and placing the ball rather than looking to clout it in the manner of Stokes or Buttler. His 15th ODI hundred, and his second in World Cup matches, was the finest expression of his particular way of playing.
When he and Buttler were together, England did not look like losing. Such is Buttler’s presence these days at the crease, it was almost impossible to see England losing while he was there. His innings was a rapid but controlled affair: 34 balls for his first 50 runs and only 75 balls for his hundred in all, nine fours and two sixes hit with that combination of power and timing, with the ball often flying to unorthodox places; one ramp shot off Wahab was staggering in its audacity.
With the run chase not out of control, if not under control, Root slashed a quicker ball from Shadab into Hafeez’s hands at short third man and, when Buttler carved Amir to the same position six overs later, it felt as if the decisive blows had been made. England required 61 from 33 balls when Buttler was dismissed and, with Hasan Ali’s assortment of slower balls and bouncers too much for Ali to handle, suddenly the equation was 38 off three overs, 29 off two, allowing Wahab to stroll through the last over off a short run.
An early blip for England, and a reminder that the burden of chasing in knockout tournaments can weigh down the mightiest of teams.