KARACHI: England Over-60s levelled the five-match ODI series against Pakistan Over-60s being played for Royal Nawab Cup by winning the second encounter by seven wickets at the picturesque Davies/Worthington Memorial Ground on Friday evening.
Pakistan Over-60s, having overhauled a challenging target of 295 in the first ODI at Park Avenue Cricket Club, Bradford, earlier in the week, again demonstrated depth in their batting by posting a fighting total of 197 after being reduced to 104 for seven. But the hosts showed greater resilience with the bat to get over the line quite leisurely in the end.
Put into bat in overcast conditions, the visitors struggled to build a momentum for their innings. The injury to opener Sajid Ali (19 off 29 balls) followed by runouts of Saleem Malik (14 off 17 balls) and Ghaffar Kazmi (16 off 23 balls) did not help their cause either. The top half of their batting was back in the hut with only 70 runs on the board.
The home side looked in complete command when wicketkeeper Tahir Rasheed (11 off 42 balls) was seventh batsman to be dismissed at the score of 104. The recovery was led by Zafar Ali (50 off 58 balls) and Muhammad Younus (18 off 40 balls) as they added 46 for the eighth wicket. Shahid Mahboob (9 off 20 balls) also helped in extending the total to a respectable 197 in 44.5 overs.
Zafar Ali, who was adjudged Player-of-the-Match for his fine all-round performance in the previous outing, continued his purple patch. His counterattacking half-century lifted the spirits of the visitors whose innings was derailed by the trio of Philip Deakin (2-20), Jim Phillips (2-28) and Kevin Watson (2-32).
Chasing a target of 198 in 45 overs, England Over-60s lost skipper Richard Merriman early but his opening partner Mel Hussain (45 off 54 balls) batted solidly. The match became wide open when the hosts slumped to 72 for three but then started the partnership between Edward Lennox (83 off 68 balls) and Monty Douglas (52 off 51 balls) who changed the course of the proceedings with their brilliant batsmanship. Their 128-run unbroken stand for the fourth wicket settled the issue decisively as the winning boundary was struck with 8.4 overs to spare.
