England romp to a 10-wicket win

Karachi, Oct 22: England geared up for the three-match one-day international series with a 10-wicket victory over Pakistan A in a one-day match here on Sunday in front of empty enclosures.

England raced to the victory target of 170 in just 29.4 overs by ruthlessly destroying the second Pakistan string bowling. Their fielding added to their miseries when they dropped Marcus Trescothick and Alec Stewart who eventually ended their agony by retiring hurt.

The sufferer on both the occasions was paceman Mohammad Sami who despite conceding 35 runs from his six overs, left a big impact. His figures might have been different had Shiraz Haider picked up a straight forward catch at square-leg of Trescothick when he was 36 and Humayun Farhat held on to a regulation catch of Stewart when he was 8.

Trecothick followed up his Friday's 102 with 59 while Stewart hit 50. Trecothick, who capitalized from some very short of length bowling by cutting and pulling at will, struck five fours and three sixes in his 55-ball innings. Stewart hit five boundaries in a 68-ball knock.

The openers retirement provided some more batting practice to skipper Nasser Hussain who finished with 31 off 44 balls.

Earlier, Hussain deciding to field to get a taste of the Pakistan summer, did an exellent job in the field by making life difficult for the Pakistan A batsmen. There was nothing unusual in their bowling except they kept the ball in three sticks.

It was disappointing to see the future Pakistan batsmen bat so poorly. Batsmen like Hasan Raza was bowled when he danced down the track, Salman Butt was caught behind while fishing around, Bazid Khan giving Stewart his second catch while cutting. Experienced Ijaz Ahmad Junior, who last played a Test in 1995, was run-out with a direct throw from Hussain.

Pakistan A headed for an embarrassing end to their innings when they reached 92 for six before Naumanullah and Fahad Khan came to their rescue by adding 66 runs for the seventh wicket from 81 balls. Nauman batted with great courage and concentration to score a fluent 64 off 88 balls. His innings included four boundaries and sixes off Darren Gough and Ashley Giles.

Fahad remained unbeaten on a 50-ball 28.

For England, the most encouraging news was the form and fitness shown by Warwickshire's left-arm spinner Ashley Giles. Giles, who missed the ICC knockout tournament because of calf injury, bagged three for 34 from nine overs. Andrew Caddick was economical, successful and impressive when he picked up three wickets for 15 runs from his quota of 10 overs.

England take on Pakistan on Tuesday in first of the three back-to-back one-day internationals.