Ben Stokes’s unbeaten 71 rescued England from a top-order collapse as the World Cup hosts and favourites beat Pakistan by three wickets with three balls to spare at Trent Bridge.
Friday’s win in a floodlit match saw England secure theseries at 3-0 up with one to play, but it was far from routine. England werecruising to a target of 341 at 201 for one when Jason Roy’s dismissal for 114sparked a collapse that saw three wickets lost for seven runs in 10 balls.
And when Moeen Ali was out for a duck, England were 216 forfive.
But Stokes steadied the ship and with No 8 Tom Curran (31)got England back on track in a stand of 61.
Curran, pushing for a place in England’s final 15-man WorldCup squad, had already taken four for 75 in Pakistan’s 340 for seven.
This was a modest score at Trent Bridge, where England havetwice set the record for the highest one-day international total, with lastyear’s 481 for six against Australia following their 444 for three againstPakistan in 2016.
“We got there in the end,” man-of-the-match Roytold Sky Sports. “I knew we had a big total on the board and I got out andI knew the job wasn’t done so I was very frustrated.
“But then the boys came in and finished it offextremely well.” Jos Buttler,captaining England after regular skipper Eoin Morgan was given a one-game banfor a slow over-rate following Tuesday’s six-wicket win in Bristol, was pleasedby the way the world’s number one-ranked ODI side had got out of a tight spot.
“You’ve just got to find a way to win and we’re goingto have situations where we play poorly through a phase of the game, but we’vemanaged to come out the other end of that today to win the game,” he said.
Pakistan captain Safraz Ahmed was once again left lamentinghis side’s sloppy fielding.
“It was definitely tough luck for us after we put runson the board,” he said. “But unfortunately our bowling execution wasnot up to the mark and we didn’t field well.” Roy, missed on 25 byFakhar Zaman, reached his eighth ODI hundred in style, with fourth six in 75balls faced, by lofting off-spinner Mohammad Hafeez over extra-cover But the28-year-old couldn’t see England home, gloving a hook off Hasnain towicket-keeper Sarfraz.
Test captain Joe Root (36) then edged left-arm spinner ImadWasim to short third man where Hafeez held on at the second attempt.
England’s 208 for three soon became 208 for four whenButtler, who made 110 not out at Southampton last weekend before being restedfor Tuesday’s six-wicket win, fell for a duck when he miscued a sweep off Imadto Hafeez at short fine leg.
Moeen Ali was also out for a duck, top-edging a sweep offShoaib Malik with Fakhar, running back from mid-on, holding a tough catchLeft-arm quick Junaid Khan reduced England to 258 for six with a superb right-handed caught and bowledoff a slower delivery to dismiss Joe Denly.
And when Curran was yorked by Hasan Ali, England stillneeded 22 off 16 balls. Stokes got the target down to 10 off 10 when he carveda six off Junaid that just cleared deep cover and he finished the job with asingle. He faced 64 balls, with five fours and three sixes.
Earlier, Pakistan failed to capitalise on Babar Azam’shundred.
Their innings fell away following a century stand betweenBabar, who made 115, and Hafeez (59).
Pakistan suffered a setback when Imam-ul-Haq, fresh from hiscareer-best 151 at Bristol, had to retire hurt on three after missing anintended pull off an 89 mph ball from fast bowler Mark Wood that hit him on theelbow but X-rays showed no fracture.Babar’s 10th four, a leg-glance off Stokes, tookhim to his ninth ODI hundred and first against England, in 104 balls before heholed out off Curran.