England chase clean sweep of summer's series
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.England can pay tribute to their most formidable one-day cricketer of recent vintage today by demonstrating how far they have moved on without him. There is no doubt that Andrew Flintoff, who announced his enforced retirement yesterday, was a colossus but it is equally true that for most of his career, England were found wanting in the limited-overs game.
Those days appear to have been consigned to history since Flintoff's final one-day international in April last year. The side, under Andrew Strauss's charge, have moved to second in the world ODI rankings.
Should they beat Pakistan at The Oval today in the third match of the NatWest Series, England will have the distinction of winning all six series in which they have played this summer: a mixture of Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20s against Bangladesh, Australia and Bangladesh. Strauss could hardly have asked for anything more.
The last part of the season has been overshadowed by the match-fixing scandal involving Pakistan and more surprisingly by the riveting climax to the County Championship. The one-day cricket has become a mere sideshow. Or it had until Pakistan shook themselves from their torpor at Headingley last Sunday and pushed England most of the way. That may well have been as well as good it gets for them. This tour has not been particularly long but it has been intensive with six Test matches in seven weeks and five one-dayers to finish off.
Pakistan must be desperate to remove themselves from the glare, not of playing, but of the suspicion and innuendo that now accompanies it. There are two more matches after today. If England go 3-0 up, they will be two too many.
England (possible): AJ Strauss (capt), SM Davies (wkt), IJL Trott, PD Collingwood, EJG Morgan, RS Bopara, TT Bresnan, MH Yardy, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, JM Anderson.
Pakistan (possible): Shahid Afridi (capt), Kamran Akmal (wkt), Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Yousuf, Asad Shafiq, Abdul Raaaq, Umar Akmal, Fawad Alam, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Shoaib Akhtar.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments