Pakistan avenge sweetly to bounce back in series
Shoaib, Akmal show no mercy to England- Inzamam achieves yet another milestone
Bureau Report

LAHORE—Avenging its Saturday’s defeat sweetly Pakistan made an impressive bounce back in the series, by not only defeating England by 7 wickets but also outclassing it in every department.
If Gaddafi Stadium crowd witnessed ruthless hitting of England batsmen with Pak bowlers finding no way out on Saturday, it was a totally different ball game on Monday when Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naveed-ul-Hassan threw half of the England team back to the pavilion while the score was yet to touch the third figure even.
Wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal scored a majestic hundred and Shoaib Akhtar’s five wickets haul were the main features of Pakistan innining as both showed no mercy either to the England or their bowlers, levelling the series 1-1 in the 2nd ODI.
Inzamam-ul-Haq made 31 not out as the hosts reached their target of 231 with six overs left. The Pakistan captain, in his 349th appearance, also became only the second batsman to hit 11,000 runs in one-dayers, joining India’s Sachin Tendulkar.
The 35-year-old Inzamam plundered four boundaries in one Liam Plunkett over to leave the five-match series level at 1-1 after England won the first game by 42 runs. The third match is in Karachi on Thursday.
Inzamam was full of praise for the efforts of his bowlers on a good batting wicket.
“They didn’t give enough room to the batsmen to play their shots and it was a good comeback from the defeat in the first match,” he told reporters.
“Akmal played well under pressure as an opener”.
Pakistan dominated from the start, fast bowler Shoaib taking five for 54 to bowl out England for a modest 230 in 48.4 overs.
Man of the match Shoaib removed Marcus Trescothick (16) and Andrew Strauss (duck) in the same over. Paceman Rana Naved also dismissed Kevin Pietersen (28) and Andrew Flintoff (duck) inside four balls as England struggled after electing to bat first.
“We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t put on enough runs on a pretty good batting wicket,” said skipper Trescothick. “There were a lot of key areas where we went wrong. Shoaib bowled particularly well and got key wickets. He bowled and used the slower ball effectively”.
Only a record ninth-wicket stand of 100 between Plunkett (56) and super-sub Vikram Solanki (39 not out) rescued England from 130 for eight.
Akmal then struck 102 from 111 balls to notch his second one-day century. He compiled 15 fours and one six. It was his second hundred against England following his 154 in the third test in Lahore, and his fourth of the year.
Akmal signalled his aggressive intentions from the second over when he sliced Steve Harmison over third man for a six and put on 86 for the first wicket with Salman Butt (43) and 74 for the third with Mohammad Yousuf (28 not out).