England vs Pakistan, 1st ODI at Cardiff, PAK in ENG, Jul 08 2021 - Match Result

6pm Well, this was meant to be a day-night ODI... but we've barely spanned enough overs to cover a single innings. This has been a walloping from England's emergency XI. Ben's Babes are brawling! From Miller, Matt, Alan in Cardiff, Ranjith and George on drums, thanks and good evening, and see you at Lord's on Saturday!

PS - here's Sampath with a killer stat to see us out. "This is the biggest win in terms of wickets and also by balls remaining in an ODI for any team with more than three debutants." That's no mean feat...

5.52pm Here's the presentation.

The Player of the Match is Saqib Mahmood: "As a team you want to win, and as a player you want to contribute. First you've got to read the conditions, guys tried to hit their lengths, and we were able to set attacking fields. Hopefully guys can take confidence from this, another important game coming up in a couple of days."

Ben Stokes: "Very clinical performance, massively ahead of the game, which helps, especially when captaining for the first time. When you get a new group together you are striving for that first team performance, but we weren't put under pressure today, not every game of cricket goes that smoothly. My message was go out and do what you do for your counties, and enjoy the situation we're in."

Babar Azam: "Credit to England for this," he says. "We didn't get momentum, or a big partnership. Fakhar carried his form on from South Africa. We are looking forward to Lord's and we have to try and do our best."

Umer Abdullah: "Seeing how this is the predictably unpredictable Pakistan team, my expected scoreline for the series is 4-1 in favour of Pakistan. You heard it here first folks." Might struggle in a three-match series, but yes, I don't write this team off lightly!

5.48pm We'll have the presentations shortly, but first a quick run-down of the day's star turns... five new caps, and 10 players with a total of 26 between them before the toss, and one of those, Zak Crawley, eases to a maiden fifty, alongside Dawid Malan, whose experience is almost exclusively of the T20I variety. But the main man is surely going to be Saqib Mahmood, whose career-best haul of 4 for 42 was an outstanding audition for a full-time role in this World Cup-winning outfit. Pakistan, by contrast, had little to write home about. Fakhar Zaman resisted for a while, and their bowlers looked sharp, but they never had a hope defending 142.

5.44pm "Ben's Babes" have done a proper job indeed... I really should have copyrighted that label! A nine-wicket victory with more than 28 overs to spare. And given the chaos that reigned two days ago, the poise has been remarkable

Nic: "Looks like the England management are going to have more selection headaches. This side has shown very definition of taking your chances."

Rhys: "The stat was: Highest 2nd wicket partnership in ODIs against Pakistan on this ground. So not that notable at all. In other news... I don't think anyone will have a TFC today?" Yes, exactly. A significant missing word maybe, but I suspect most of you pedants could have read between the lines there! Still, nothing wrong with pedantry, I swear by it.

Giggity: ""This is now the highest second-wicket partnership in ODIs, overtaking Mark Waugh and Ricky Ponting."What do you mean by that? Partnership in runs?" Did I forget to say Cardiff? That'd be it then. Next!

Andy: "Highest second wicket odi partnership was actually gayle and samuals. Just a few runs more! " Fair enough! I'll dig out the full stat in due course. eavesdropping on Nasser has its drawbacks

Vivaan : "What beef does Crawley have with Pakistan?" Fair cop. 267 last season, now this, and not a lot in between!