3rd ODI (D/N), England tour of Pakistan at Karachi, Dec 15 2005


Scorecard and Video Highlights 

At Karachi, December 15, 2005 (day/night). Pakistan won by 165 runs. Toss: England.

Another hammering for England equalled their worst defeat batting second. Like that previous loss, under Mike Atherton at St Vincent in 1993-94, it began with a quixotic decision to insert the opposition. Trescothick felt there was enough dew to encourage the seamers but, while the ball nipped around for maybe the first ten overs, it was the batsmen who did the swinging thereafter. The early stages saw a delightful exhibition from Kamran Akmal, who notched a second successive hundred. Then the show turned X-rated: Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq treated England's seamers like mere clubbies. One scarcely believable sequence saw 81 runs in six overs. Anderson was especially guilty of serving up length balls, disappearing over the fence three times in five deliveries. By the end of this eye-popping spectacle, Pakistan had 353 - 27 more than England had ever conceded in a one-day game. The chase foundered almost immediately, as Trescothick and Solanki fell in one over from Naved-ul-Hasan. Bell continued the trend of replacement batsmen scoring runs down the order, but the margin was still humiliating. For all Karachi's reputation as a terrorist hotspot, England may have regretted their decision to spend less than 24 hours there beforehand.


Man of the Match: Kamran Akmal. 

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