Review of Pakistan - England one-day internationals in England

Pakistan did lose the final of the NatWest Series to Australia. However, despite this humiliating loss, one cheerful aspect of the tournament was their success against England in all three league matches. This was by far their best performance in ODIs against England on English soil, since the inaugural series between the two teams in 1974, when they outclassed the hosts 2-0. Unfortunately, Pakistan's performance on subsequent tours had been dismal. They lost all the five one-day series played between 1978 and 1996. They also lost all the World Cup fixtures played against England in 1979 and 1983. However, by virtue of their recent successes in the NatWest Series, Pakistan have improved their past record in ODIs against England in England. They now have 8 wins in 23 matches played to date, yet England's dominance with 15 victories continues.

Below are brief highlights of One-Day Internationals Pakistan played on previous tours to England.

1974
Pakistan won the series 2-0. Intikhab Alam's men bested England at Nottingham by 7 wickets and at Birmingham by 8 wickets. Majid Khan scored a superb 109 at Nottingham and at Brimingham, Asif Masood, Majid Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz and Asif Iqbal took two cheap wickets each to account for England's fall (81-9 in 35 overs).

1978
Pakistan lost 0-2. At Manchester by 132 runs and at the Oval by 94 runs. Bob Willis and David Gower were the key players for England in the respective matches.

1979
Prudential World Cup: At Leeds, Pakistan lost a closely fought match by 14 runs. Majid Khan's 3/27 and Asif Iqbal's 2/37 figures were bettered by 'Man of the Match' Mike Hendricks with 4/15.

1982
Prudential Trophy: Pakistan lost the series 0-2. They lost at Nottingham by 7 wickets and at Manchester by 73 runs. Allan Lamb scored 118 at Nottingham and Mike Gatting 76 and Wasim Raja 60, both scored well at Manchester. In bowling, Ian Botham, Derek Pringle and Imran Khan were out standing.

1983
Prudential World Cup: Pakistan lost both matches, at Lords and Manchester by 8 and 7 wickets respectively. Pakistan's modest totals of 193/8 and 232/8 were easily overtaken by England in the two matches. Zaheer Abbas scored 83 not out at Lords and Javed Miandad 67 at Manchester.

1987
Texaco Trophy: Pakistan lost the series 1-2. Chris Broad's 99 brought victory to England by 7 wickets at The Oval. Dismissing England for a low total of 157 in 51.5 overs, Javed Miandad's 71 not out steered Pakistan to a 6 wicket victory at Nottingham. England won the closely fought decider at Brimingham by one wicket and Javed Miandad scored 68. Phil DeFreitas was Man of the Match.

1992
Texaco Trophy: Pakistan lost the series 1-4. England won by 79 runs at Lords, by 39 runs at The Oval, by 198 runs at Nottingham and by 6 wickets at Manchester. Pakistan's narrow and lone victory was at Lord's by 3 runs. Twice, England crossed the 300 runs mark: 302 for 5 at the Oval and 363 for 7 at Trent Bridge. Alec Stewart scored 103 at the Oval. Robin Smith, Alan Lamb, Neil Fairbrother, Graham Hick were other successful batsmen. Pakistan's victory at Lord's was mainly attributed to Javed Miandad's 50 not out and Waqar Younis 3 for 36.

1996
Pakistan lost 1-2. England won at Manchester by 5 wickets and at Birmingham by 107 runs. Man of the Match at Manchester, Mike Atherton scored 65 in England's 226-5. At Birmingham, Nick Knight scored 113 and Ben Hollioake claimed 4 for 23. Despite Nick Knight's another ton (126 not out), England lost by 2 wickets at Nottingham where Wasim Akram took 3/45 and Saeed Anwar (61) and Ijaz Ahmed (59) were the main scorers.

NatWest Series 2001
Pakistan won all three round robin league matches in the tournament, eliminating England from the final. In the inaugural match, at Birmingham, Saeed Anwar's 77 and Inzamam-ul-Haq's 79 helped Pakistan reach a safe total of 273. In reply, England never looked in contention, failing in the end by 108 runs. Shahid Afridi claimed 3 for 15. Saeed Anwar won the Man of the Match award.
At Lord's, the two teams fought a close match. Batting first, Pakistan were contained to 242 for 8. Yousuf Youhana scored a superb 81. Darren Gough, Andrew Caddick and Allan Mullally claimed three wickets each. In reply, England were coasting to victory at 196 for 4, but then came the slide and six wickets fell with the addition of only 44 runs. The home side lost the thrilling match on the last ball by 2 runs. Marcus Trescothick scored 137. Waqar Younis, Abdur Razzaq and Saqlain Mushtaq claimed two wickets each.
In the third match at Leeds, Waqar Younis produced remarkable seam and swing to claim 7 for 37, the second best performance ever in ODIs. England, after being 'Waqared', recovered from 7 for 58 to reach 156. Led by Abdur Razzaq's fine 75, Pakistan were just 4 runs away from victory, with 6 wickets in hand, when Pakistan supporters invaded the pitch and a steward was injured in the melee for grabbing the stumps. This incident led Alec Stewart, the England captain, to take the unprecedented decision of conceding the match.

Year Won by Pakistan Won by England Tied/NR 1974 2 0 - 1978 0 2 - 1979* 0 1 - 1982 0 2 - 1983* 0 2 - 1987 1 2 - 1992 1 4 - 1996 1 2 - 2001** 3 0 - 8 15 - * Matches played during World Cup
**NatWest Series