Buttler takes his second chance

Had Jos Buttler been stumped before he had scored - as he probably should have been - England would have been 103 for five and in the midst of a familiar collapse against spin bowling. Buttler, facing just his third ball, had skipped down the wicket against Shoaib Malik and effectively yorked himself. But Sarfraz Ahmed could not take the ball cleanly and Buttler regained his ground. He went on to score an unbeaten 49 and added an unbroken 117 for the fifth-wicket with James Taylor in a partnership which settled the game.

This was an unusually competitive category, with three Pakistan batsmen succumbing to run outs and each a contender for the most embarrassing. But perhaps it was Shoaib Malik who should take the accolade. As the last recognised batsman, Pakistan could well have done with him to shepherd the tail and ensure the team utilised all their overs. Instead, backing up to Wahab Riaz, he attempted an all but impossible run to the best fielder in the England squad, displayed the turning circle of an oil tanker and was run out by some distance to become the fifth wicket to fall in the space of just 29 runs. It is hard to imagine there would have been a run in any circumstance - Wahab turned the ball pretty much straight to midwicket - but the fact that it was Chris Jordan placed there made it all the more unlikely.

Perhaps the most significant blow in this encounter was struck the day before the game. Yasir Shah, the Pakistan legspinner, injured a knee in training the day before the match and was ruled out of contention. While he conceded 70 runs in the previous ODI, he took seven wickets in the Test on this very pitch barely a couple of weeks ago and would surely have relished the conditions. His replacement, Zafar Gohar, did pretty well but, bearing in mind England's long term record against legspin, Yasir's absence may have proved the difference between the sides.

The wicket of Eoin Morgan was Malik's 150th in ODI cricket. Quite a ball it was, too. Drifting in to Morgan, it then spun sharply, beating the outside edge of the bat as he remained on the back foot and clipping the top of off stump. It seemed, at the time and with Morgan having batted so well, as if it may be the wicket to settle the game: England were 93 for 4 and 209 looked far away.

Whatever their problems in developing another generation of batsmen, Pakistan's ability to unearth new bowlers is uncanny. Here, with Yasir injured, they gave an opportunity to a 20-year-old with only 19 List A games behind him. And if Gohar's first wicket - Joe Root - owed a little to fortune (Root slog-swept a full toss, just Zafar's fifth delivery in international cricket, down the throat of deep square leg), his second, Alex Hales, was the result of a fine ball that drew the batsmen into a stroke but then spun sharply to take the outside edge. Zafar also drove David Willey for a straight six and, if he could improve his consistency and his fielding, looked a fine prospect for such an inexperienced cricketer.