Birmingham, July 14 (IANS) James Vince scored a hundred and Lewis Gregory contributed 77 as England defeated Pakistan by three wickets to complete a clean sweep of the three-match ODI series.
Vince raced to 102 off 95 deliveries and Gregory struck his 77 of 69 balls as hosts England, chasing Pakistan's challenging score of 331 for seven wickets, reached 332 for seven with two overs to spare.
Opener Phil Salt scored 37 while skipper Ben Stokes added 32 as England held their nerves to register a comfortable win in third and final ODI.
Earlier, skipper Babar Azam struck a career-best 158 (139-ball) and helped Pakistan's batting finally came good in this series.
Opener Imam-ul-Haq scored 56 and Mohammad Rizwan 74 as Pakistan posted 331 for nine wickets in their allotted 50 overs.
Playing against a makeshift England squad, after the originally selected player went into isolation after three players tested positive for COVID-19, Pakistan has struggled with their batting, putting up scores of 141 and 195 as they were outplayed in the first two ODIs.
Babar came in after Fakhar Zaman was out early for 6, caught by Zak Crawley off Saqib Mahmood. He raised 92 runs for the third wicket with opener Imam-ul-Haq and then put together a partnership of 179 with Rizwan. However, they suffered a collapse soon after Rizwan was out, caught by wicketkeeper Simpson off seamer Brydon Carse, with the score 292/3. Only one of the remaining seven batsman managed to reach double digits.
But Babar kept blasting runs from the other end and was the eighth batsman out with the score 328 in the 50th over.
He struck 14 boundaries and four sixes during his innings. Carse was the best England bowler on display as he claimed five wickets for 61 in his 10 overs.
Brief scores: Pakistan 331/9 in 50 overs (Imam-ul-Haq 56, Babar Azam 158, M Rizwan 74; Brydon Carse 5/61). England 332/7 in 48 overs (Phil Salt 37, James Vince 102, Ben Stokes 32, Lewis Gregory 77; Haris Rauf 4/65)
Giving credit to his family, friends and ‘guruji’ (mentor), he said: “The credit goes to my family, my close friends who’re always supportive of me. My guruji keeps telling me to keep playing and ‘you can come back on top’.”
The 34-year-old Yuvraj, who last played international cricket at the World Twenty20 in Bangladesh during March-April 2014, was selected after some fine performances in domestic one-day games this month.
The middleweight (75 kg) boxer from Haryana hardly faced any opposition from his stocky opponent, as he clinched victory just after the start of the second round.
