Imam’s career-best 151 powers Pakistan to 358

BRISTOL: Imam-ul-Haq came into form ahead of the World Cup with a career-best 151 as Pakistan made 358 for nine against tournament hosts England in the third one-day international at Bristol on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old left-hander’s innings was also the highest individual score by a Pakistan batsman against England at this level, surpassing the 138 made by his opening partner, Fakhar Zaman, in a 12-run defeat at Southampton on Saturday that left the home side 1-0 up in this five-match series.

Meanwhile Chris Woakes did his chances of being included in tournament hosts England’s final 15-man squad for the World Cup no harm with a return of four wickets for 67 runs in a maximum 10 overs. But team-mate Joe Denly’s World Cup chances suffered a setback, with the leg-spinner — playing in place of the rested Adil Rashid — bowling a couple of full tosses in a solitary over costing nine runs before he was taken out of the attack by England captain Eoin Morgan.

Warwickshire pace-bowling all-rounder Woakes made an early double strike to reduce Pakistan to 27 for two after Morgan won the toss and decided to let England chase — they generally prefer to bat first — ahead of the World Cup.

Woakes’s last ball of the first over, an excellent full-length delivery, had Fakhar edging to second slip where Test skipper Joe Root held a juggled catch. Number three Babar Azam was then clean bowled by a Woakes off-cutter. But new batsman Haris Sohail was quickly into his stride in ideal batting conditions on a sunny day.

The left-hander hit two superbly timed fours off successive Woakes deliveries through point and then drove David Willey through the covers for a boundary. But Sohail’s excellent run-a-ball 41 came to an unfortunate end when, called through for a single by Imam, he was run out by bowler Tom Curran kicking the ball onto the striker’s-end stumps.

Pakistan

Imam-ul-Haq b Curran 151

Fakhar Zaman c Root b Woakes 2

Babar Azam b Woakes 15

Haris Sohail run out (Curran) 41

Sarfraz Ahmed c sub b Plunkett 27

Asif Ali c Roy b Woakes 52

Imad Wasim c and b Woakes 22

Faheem Ashraf lbw b Curran 13

Hasan Ali not out 18

Shaheen Afridi c and b Willey 7

Junaid Khan not out 0

Extras: (lb1, w9) 10

Total: (9 wkts, 50 overs) 358

Fall: 1-7 (Fakhar), 2-27 (Babar), 3-95 (Sohail), 4-162 (Sarfraz), 5-287(Asif), 6-310 (Imam), 7-322 (Imad), 8-335 (Ashraf), 9-348 (Afridi)

Bowling: Woakes 10-0-67-4; Willey 10-0-86-1 (4w); Ali 6-0-32-0; Plunkett 9-0-55-1 (3w); Curran 10-0-74-2 (1w); Stokes 4-0-34-0 (1w); Denly 1-0-9-0

Toss: England Umpires: Paul Reiffel (AUS), Michael Gough (ENG)

TV umpire: Chris Gaffaney (NZL) Match referee: Richie Richardson (WIS).