Cricket:Eoin Morgan's second Rose Bowl hundred of the summer helped England clinch the troubled NatWest Series 3-2 with a landslide 121-run victory over Pakistan. England's mettle has been tested more than they could have imagined, yet thanks largely to Morgan, they recovered their composure to halt Pakistan's fightback from 2-0 down.
They therefore achieved their ambition of six consecutive series victories, across all formats this summer, despite the unwanted and at times all-consuming distractions of spot-fixing crises which have dominated Pakistan’s limited-overs campaign.
The tourists began their chase of 256 for six with a hectic opening stand but faltered alarmingly under lights as Stuart Broad and then Graeme Swann (three for 26) each put themselves on a hat-trick and all 10 wickets fell for 72 runs in an anti-climactic 135 all out in 37 overs.
But it was Morgan’s unbeaten 107 — back at the scene of his match-winning hundred against Australia in June — which was the main reason for England’s success.
Pakistan by contrast will have little to smile about as they board the plane back home tomorrow morning, after an arduous and hugely stressful three-month tour. Morgan and Paul Collingwood shared a fifth-wicket stand of 93, after Shoaib Akhtar (three for 40) had put England in an awkward spot in front of a noisy and partisan crowd.
Collingwood’s innings was interrupted by a migraine, and Ian Bell needed a runner because of an apparent groin strain. But Morgan was in rude health as he demonstrated his limited-overs prowess in a 97-ball century containing eight fours and a six.
Pakistan’s rapid response soon had to be reassessed as wickets began to tumble. Hafeez and Kamran Akmal’s 63-run opening stand ended when the former cut Broad aerially to point — where Collingwood took a memorable catch high to his right — and then Asad Shafiq hung out his bat and edged to the wicketkeeper for a first-ball duck.
Akmal was unfortunate to go lbw to a Luke Wright inswinger, having got a big inside edge on to his pad; then Swann’s party piece of a wicket in his first over did for Fawad Alam, bowled pushing forward at a big off-break.
It was important for Yousuf and Umar Akmal not to panic. But a stand of 21 in eight overs took things to unhelpful extremes. Swann repeated Broad’s two-in-two feat, turning one sharply back through Yousuf’s attempted drive to hit off stump and then Afridi edging on.
More than 23 overs elapsed without a Pakistan boundary, and the game and series was up as the tourists ended their impossibly irksome tour with barely a whimper of defiance.