Pakistan bludgeon England Rajiv Kumar - 7 April 1999 CricInfo report

The Pakistani winning machine continues to roll on and on. In the opening game of the Coca Cola Cup at Sharjah, Pakistan won easily against a rusty English side by a margin of 90 runs. A match winning knock of 137 by Ijaz Ahmed helped set an unreachable target of 323 runs.

Wasim Akram won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat, dry wicket. Though the match was a day and night event, the English still had to field in extremely hot conditions (nearly 40 degrees centigrade)!

Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi made a relatively slow start. Both Darren Gough and Alan Mullally bowled just short of length and kept the scoring rate in check. After 5 overs Pakistan were 20/0. In the 7th over Anwar hit the most amazing six of Gough. All he did was flick the ball off his pads and the perfect timing took it sailing over the fence. But Gough had his revenge few balls latter when he had Anwar nick a quicker one to the keeper.

The next man in, Ijaz Ahmed, and Afridi built up a crucial partnership of 87 runs. As usually Ijaz looked shaky in the beginning but slowly his confidence grew. In the 11th over the game he smashed Mark Ealham's gentle medium pace all over the park for 12 runs. This opened the flood gates. Ijaz, and to a lesser extent Afridi, began to attack the bowling mercilessly. At same time they did not forget to take singles.

Afridi's departure in the 23th over, when he top edged Ealham's slower ball to mid on, did not affect Ijaz. In fact he and Inzamam built a formidable alliance of 145 runs. Inzamam was not really at his fluent best but he focussed hard and pushed the scoring along. Pakistan reached the 150 mark in the 29th over.

Exactly ten overs latter Ijaz reached his 100 when he pushed the ball to long off for a single. This gem of a innings was his first century at Sharjah. Both batsmen stepped on the accelerator and at the end of 43 overs Pakistan were already 250.

Ijaz was finally out when he lofted Gough straight into the hands of Hick at long off. His 137 of 130 balls might not have been that pretty to watch but it was a awesome display of power batting. Akram and Moin Khan struck some huge blows before the innings closed at 323 runs. The highlight of the closing stages was Moin hitting debutant Andrew Flintoff for two consecutive sixes of the last two balls of the innings.

The English innings began very well with Alec Stewart smashing the Shoaib Akhtar's first 2 deliveries to the boundary. First was a powerful pull shot that raced to the fence. The next shot was perfectly timed that went through mid wicket. But this euphoria did not last long as Nick Knight, beaten by Akhtar's pace, played onto his stumps.

Shoaib Akhtar, bowling at an average of 150 km/hour, was too hot to handle for the Englishmen. Stewart nicked an over pitched delivery straight to first slip. And Thorpe flicked Akhtar's delivery straight into the hands of short mid wicket.

Hick and Neil Fairbrother were building up a good partnership until Fairbrother was beaten by a beautiful in-swinger of Azhar Mahmood that hit the top of middle stump. England were 91/4 and the game seemed like it would be over soon. But a exciting partnership between Hick and Flintoff salvaged some pride for England.

Flintoff initially struggled against the Pakistani bowling attack. Saqlain in particular tormented him. However with the introduction of Afridi into the attack, Flintoff's confidence grew and he started smashing massive sixes over long on and long off. All of sudden England seemed to have a slender chance of making a match of it. Flintoff and Hick reached their respective half centuries. 4 sixes and 2 fours were part of Flintoff's 50. In the 34th over Saqlain was brought back to break this partnership. He did just that. Hick was caught at backward point by Akhtar. And in the very same over Flintoff holed out to Akhtar at long off. With these dismissals England's hopes were dead and buried. They were ultimately bowled out for 233 runs.

Ijaz Ahmed was the man of the match. The next match is between India and Pakistan today at 3pm local time (1100 GMT).