6th over: Pakistan 38-2 (Imam-ul-Haq 20, Haris 0) Willey stops swinging, and Imam starts: one ball is sent rocketing through the covers, and another to long-off.
5th over: Pakistan 27-2 (Imam-ul-Haq 10, Haris 0) Woakes goes short and Babar flays it away for four, a lovely shot. And then a real rarity: a Ben Stokes misfield! Babar tucks the ball to midwicket where Stokes dives over it. He springs to his feet and gives chase, but can’t catch it. Having hit consecutive boundaries Babar is out next ball, a beauty that moves into the batsman, beats him for pace and takes out off stump.
WICKET! Babar b Woakes 15 (Pakistan 27-2)
Lovely from Woakes, who takes out Babar Azam’s off stump!
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4th over: Pakistan 19-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 10, Babar 7) Willey bowls straight at Imam but the ball fades away from the batsman, who completely misses it. Tasty. Then Babar pushes one dead straight, with very little force, and it rumbles away for four.
3rd over: Pakistan 12-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 9, Babar 1) Just the single from Woakes’ second over. Still two slips, with the short straight boundaries likely to encourage potentially risky driving.
2nd over: Pakistan 11-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 9, Babar 0) A soupçon of swing for Willey, who gets the ball gently curling away from the left-handed Imam. The batsman hits one past a diving mid-on for four, and leaves the rest.
1st over: Pakistan 7-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 5) Woakes’ first delivery has Imam fending and edging, but the ball flies wide of second slip for four. Fakhar later gets off the mark with a handsome if not quite perfectly timed cover drive. “That’s the shot of a man in form,” exclaims David Lloyd on Sky. He’s out next ball.
WICKET! Fakhar c Root b Woakes 2 (Pakistan 7-1)
What was a good first over for Pakistan ends as a great one for England as Fakhar Zaman edges the final ball straight to Root, who takes it at the second attempt!
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Out come the players! It’s an absolutely glorious afternoon in Bristol. Cricket incoming!
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If any of you are eagerly monitoring your inboxes in anticipation of this week’s Spin, you may be waiting a while: it’ll be out tomorrow. If you’ve got no idea what the Spin is, sign up here.
So the teams in full:
England Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan (capt), Joe Denly, Tom Curran, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Liam Plunkett.
Pakistan Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Asif Ali, Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt/wk), Haris Sohail, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Junaid Khan.
Sarfaraz Ahmed says that he too would have chosen to bowl first. Yasir Shah is out, Junaid Khan is in.
England win the toss and will bowl
Eoin Morgan says:
It does look a really good wicket. Bristol is very short, particularly straight, and with the wind it might be hard to defend later on. Hopefully we can restrict Pakistan to a reasonable total.
Rashid and Buttler are out, Denly and Tom Curran come in.
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Hello world!
And so, we go again. After Saturday’s runfest in Southampton comes, well, probably another runfest at the County Ground in Bristol, with its short boundaries at both ends. There will be changes to both teams, with Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler, England’s most box-office bowler and batsman at the moment, both considered unlikely to play, while Joe Denly will be given a chance to bowl, a potentially do-or-die occasion for the 33-year-old’s World Cup ambitions. In other important news, the forecast is for sun, and plenty of it. Here’s Vic Marks’ preview:
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