Jordan Cox put down Arafat Minhas when the left-arm spinner had 12. By the end of the night in Rawalpindi, Minhas had made 59, taken 6-40 and all but settled the match: Pakistan 302-9, England 215 all out in 38.4 overs, a defeat by 87 runs that opened England’s winter in the worst possible way.
It was the second match of the one-day tri-series involving Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka, and Pakistan now have two wins from two after beating Sri Lanka by 37 runs at the same ground on 18 October. England, captained by Harry Brook, have a fortnight of this tournament left and plenty to correct before the final in Lahore on 31 October.
Dropped chances, a rebuilt total
England won the toss, bowled, and had the perfect start: Fakhar Zaman caught by Joe Root off Gus Atkinson from the first ball of the innings. Sonny Baker removed Saim Ayub, Will Jacks bowled Babar Azam for 34 and Adil Rashid had Salman Ali Agha caught at 81-4. When Atkinson had Saad Baig taken for 35, Pakistan were 133-5 in the 28th over and a total of 230 looked generous.
England dropped three catches in all, two of them by Cox behind the stumps, and the most expensive was the reprieve offered to Minhas. Alongside Hasan Nawaz, who struck 79 from 74 balls with five fours and four sixes, Minhas added 78 for the sixth wicket. Jamie Overton eventually bowled Nawaz at 211 in the 40th over, but Minhas carried on to a maiden ODI fifty and Faheem Ashraf hammered 39 from 26 to take Pakistan past 300. Pakistan scored 169 from their last 22 overs.
England’s attack was not disgraced — Overton conceded 38 from his ten, Jacks 45 from his — but Baker leaked 65 in nine overs on an evening when his lengths kept drifting, and Rashid’s 1-55 from eight was an unusually expensive return on a surface that would later turn square for his opposite number. Eleven leg byes said something about the control, too.
Too careful against the spin
For 14 overs the chase was straightforward. Tom Banton and Ben Duckett put on 91 at better than six an over, Duckett hitting 45 from 46 before Haris Rauf had him caught by Fakhar. Banton reached 57 from 53 and then holed out to midwicket off Minhas, who in his next spell removed Brook for 5 and began working through the middle order.
Naseem Shah bowled Root for 33 at 165-4, and from 197-5 in the 35th over England lost their last five wickets for 18 runs. Jordan Cox was lbw, Jacks caught at long-on, Overton caught at midwicket, Atkinson run out in a mix-up with Baker, Rashid lbw first ball. Minhas finished with 6-40 from 8.4 overs — career-best figures, and the best by a Pakistan spinner against England in one-day internationals.
Brook was blunt about the approach. “We were a little too careful against the spinners especially,” he said. England’s middle order managed 27 from 39 balls (Sam Curran), 18 from 16 (Cox) and 19 from 24 (Jacks) in a period when the required rate was climbing and the only route back was through Minhas and Saim Ayub, who bowled 16.4 overs between them for 87 runs.
This was a thin England side. Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer and Jacob Bethell were all absent through injury or rest, leaving Brook with a batting line-up carrying one specialist wicketkeeper option and a seam attack led by Atkinson and Baker rather than the names England expect to field in a knockout match.
A winter on the road
This was the first fixture of a schedule that takes England to four countries on three continents: the tri-series in Pakistan, three ODIs and five T20Is in Australia, a tour of South Africa in December and January comprising three Tests and three ODIs, and two Tests in Bangladesh in February. There is no home comfort anywhere in it, and no settled squad either.
The 50-over cricket matters more than the fixture list suggests. The 2027 World Cup is in southern Africa, and England arrive at it as defending champions of nothing much — their 2023 title defence in India collapsed into a seventh-place finish, and the rebuild under Brook has been conducted in fragments between franchise windows. Pitches in Rawalpindi and Lahore will not be those in Johannesburg or Harare, but the questions this defeat asked — about catching, about intent against spin, about who bats at five and six — travel.
England’s next assignment is Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi on 22 October, followed by a rematch with Pakistan in Lahore on 27 October. Lose the first of those and the final will be out of reach before the series reaches its second city.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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