Updates from the opening match in the seriesEngland’s Ashes bowlers lifted as ECB sticks with Dukes ballYou can email Nick here or tweet him here 2.49pm BST 8th over: Pakistan 23-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 9, Babar Azam 8) Trevor Bayliss noted that Archer looked a tad nervous against Ireland the other day, but he seems very relaxed now. Pakistan finally score a run off him, Imam shoving a single into the covers, to which he responds by nearly taking Azam’s nose off with a short one. Azam misses a drive then tries to pretend he was leaving it all along, but jumps all over the first slightly loose ball Archer has bowled, cutting nicely just behind point for a boundary. 2.44pm BST 7th over: Pakistan 18-1 (Imam-ul-Haq 8, Babar Azam 4) Relatively tight from Woakes, even if he does look like a dobber compared to the bloke bowling from the other end. Just a single from that over. Gary Naylor is trying not to get carried away about the lad Jofra, but it’s difficult not to when someone’s talent is this obvious. “Of course it’s too early to make such judgements, but I’ve seen a lot of quicks at the Oval since Michael Holding’s all-time great performance in 1976 and few remind me more of the great man than Jofra Archer. There isn’t quite the grace, not quite the cool and (maybe) not quite the pace, but the talent is as obvious.There’s so little to go wrong with his action and such acceleration through the crease on delivery, that it’s impossible not to throw to The Ashes – when we’ll surely need to fight fire with fire when Patrick Cummins and co crank it up.” Continue reading…
Via: England v Pakistan: first ODI – live!
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