England overcame a sloppy display to secure a 37-run win over Pakistan in the first one-day international of their three-match series in Derby.
No England batter scored more than 44 as they posted 243-9 from their 50 overs, while they conceded 40 extras – a team record in women’s ODI cricket – in Pakistan’s reply.
Amy Jones also dropped two chances from behind the stumps but, despite the errors, England ultimately emerged victorious, maintaining their unbeaten record against Pakistan in ODI cricket
Sophie Ecclestone claimed 3-26, taking her tally to 98 wickets in ODIs and two short of being the quickest to a century in the format – two needed in her next match to break the record of 64 games set by Australia’s Cathryn Fitzpatrick.
The two teams head to Taunton on Sunday for the second ODI, where England will look to wrap up a second series win following their 3-0 whitewash in the preceding T20s.
Sunday 26th May 10:30am
Put into bat at the toss, England’s top order struggled for fluency against Pakistan’s array of pace-off bowlers, with the introduction of left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu (2-41) in the ninth over securing the opening breakthrough of Maia Bouchier (17) lbw.
Tammy Beaumont (33) was another to be pinned in front, by Umm-e-Hani (2-43), while Heather Knight eventually perished for 29 in a streaky innings that saw the England skipper twice dropped, on 0 and 18.
Nat Sciver-Brunt (31) was another to get a start but fail to kick on, falling to Aliya Riaz (2-24) to leave England 118-4, before Alice Capsey (44) and Amy Jones (37) rebuilt with a 67-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
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Alice Capsey fell short of a maiden ODI half-century for England after being caught and bowled by Nashra Sandhu
Capsey’s effort was a career-best mark in ODI cricket but the 19-year-old would fall six shy of a maiden half-century, popping a simple return catch back to Nashra.
Nida Dar (3-56) then ran through the lower order as England flirted with failing to bat out their full 50 overs.
Unbeaten in their 12 previous ODI encounters against Pakistan, England would still have been confident of defending their rather modest score but they were wayward with the ball, particularly early on in the chase where 17 wides came in the opening 15 overs.
In that period, Lauren Bell (2-42) at least picked up Sidra Amin (2) caught behind soon after Jones dropped her on the same score, but it was the introduction of Ecclestone in the 16th over that seemed to break England out of their slumber.
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Sophie Ecclestone picked up her second wicket of the match as she claimed the wicket of Ayesha Zafar to reduce Pakistan to 79-3
The left-arm spinner bowled both Sadaf Shamas (24) and Ayesha Zafar (8) in the space of three overs to reduce Pakistan to 79-3 but their batting order didn’t subside thereafter.
Muneeba Ali (34) – dropped by Jones on 14 – was well supported by skipper Nida Dar (26), with a useful contribution too from Aliya Riaz (21) and the hosts will have been a little concerned when, with 16 overs to go, Pakistan required 95 at less than a run a ball and with six wickets still remaining.
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Pakistan were reduced to 149-5 after captain Nida Dar was caught in the deep by Tammy Beaumont off the bowling of Charlie Dean
But Charlie Dean (2-39) picked up Nida in the next as three wickets suddenly fell in as many overs to all but extinguish the visitors’ hopes of an upset.
Kate Cross (2-46) returned to grab two late on as Pakistan limped to 206-9 at the conclusion of their 50 overs, 34 runs short.
Knight: A scrappy performance from England
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England captain Heather Knight admits victory in the first ODI against Pakistan can only be described as ‘scrappy’ and targets an improvement in the second ODI on Sunday
England captain Heather Knight:
“It was a scrappy performance, we can do a lot better, there were too many extras but at the end of the day, we got the job done.
“It’s tricky to force it on that wicket. I thought Tammy [Beaumont] set the tempo really nicely as well as [Alice] Capsey but there were a lot of things we can tidy up.
“I’ve talked a lot about finding the tempo in ODI cricket and the more we do things for longer, the better we get at it.
“There were a lot of stop-starts and you want one batter to dominate and we needed to be a lot more tidy in the field.”
Ecclestone: Great to get three wickets
Player of the Match, England’s Sophie Ecclestone (3-26):
“It was cold out there but it’s great to get three wickets and get the win. I just tried to keep bowling my best ball for longer.
“I think we didn’t get enough runs, we should’ve got more, we wanted to take wickets and we did.”
Nida: We need to improve our batting
Pakistan’s captain Nida Dar:
“I think our bowlers bowled really well and we expected England to make 270 and we restricted them on 250, so that is really good.
“At half time it wasn’t over and I told the team we need to have more partnerships because that’s where we are still lacking. We will talk and plan again, we just need to finish the game.”
Watch the second ODI between England and Pakistan from Taunton, live on Sky Sports Cricket on Sunday from 10.30am (first ball 11am). Also stream with NOW.
England vs Pakistan ODI series fixtures – live on Sky Sports
May 23: First Women’s One-Day International – England win by 37 runs
May 26: Second Women’s One-Day International – Taunton, 11am
May 29: Third Women’s One-Day International – Chelmsford, 1pm
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