Shahid Afridi equaled Shoaib Akhtar’s record of most wickets against England in One-day Internationals by dismissing Alastair Cook off his own bowling in the second match of the four-match series at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Wednesday (February 15). It was Afridi’s 34th wicket in 24 ODIs against England. Akhtar also took the same number of wickets in 18 matches against England. James Anderson equaled Ian Botham’s England record of most wickets against Pakistan by bowling out Afridi. It was his 27th wicket in 16 ODIs against Pakistan. Botham also took the same number of wickets in 23 ODIs against Pakistan.
Alastair Cook became the first England skipper to score back to back hundreds in ODIs. After making 137 off 142 balls with 14 fours in the first match on Monday (February 13), Cook went to score 102 off 121 balls with 10 fours in the second match on Wednesday (February 15). Cook, by making two hundreds in two matches, also became only the third England batsman to score two hundreds against Pakistan in ODIs. The other two England batsmen to achieve this feat before Cook was Nick Knight (two hunderds in 10 innings of 10 matches) and Marcus Trescothick (two hundreds in 18 innings of 18 matches). Cook received his fifth man of the match award in 43 ODIs. It was second such award in as many matches against Pakistan.
Most wickets in England-Pakistan one-dayers
Bowler M I Balls Runs Wkts Avg R/O 4WI Best
Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan) 18 18 977 822 34 24.17 5.04 4 5-54
Shahid Afridi (Pakistan) 24 24 1092 830 34 24.41 4.56 1 5-40
Wasim Akram (Pakistan) 32 32 1650 1134 32 35.43 4.12 – 3-25
Waqar Younis (Pakistan) 14 14 740 603 30 20.10 4.88 2 7-36
James Anderson (England) 16 15 806 583 27 21.59 4.33 3 4-27
Ian Botham (England) 23 23 1377 856 27 31.70 3.72 – 3-29
Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan) 13 13 724 477 24 19.87 3.95 2 5-20
Abdul Qadir (Pakistan) 11 11 597 416 23 18.08 4.18 1 4-31
Imran Khan (Pakistan) 20 17 878 535 23 23.26 3.65 1 4-37
Phil DeFreitas (England) 19 19 1067 686 21 32.66 3.85 – 3-33
Darren Gough (England) 17 17 918 725 21 34.52 4.73 – 3-39
