1st ODI: England v Pakistan at Southampton

Pakistan 158/3 (32.6 ov)

Rashid to Azhar Ali, FOUR

Rain has stopped play at Southampton, PAK 218/4 in 42.1 Overs, Sarfraz and Malik at the crease

Whappen to the Lanka OZ 2nd ODI  :-\

A very solid all round performance from England today. I thought the bowlers were outstanding, and did brilliant to restrict Pakistan to a very modest total. They kept chipping away and took wickets at vital moments to stiffle any moment Pakistan looked to be gaining. Inspired captaincy from Morgan to bring on Root to bowl, and it paid off instantly. It was a very stop start performance from Pakistan, though I thought Sarfraz looked real class.

On the batting side, it was good to see Roy continuing to build off his two centuries against Sri Lanka. Root will surely be having a few words with his skipper. A shocking call from Morgan. All in all, this was a great start to the series for the hosts. A shame the weather intervened.

Yes I caught the highlights and your points are borne out.

Never like a weather affected result, especially when D/L is concerned but best to be on the better end of it and I suppose the lads knew what was required as the forecast suggested more downpours.

I think Pakistan will be worth opponents but they are far better test players.

Mikey Holding was heavily critical of Sharjeel calling for a review when it was pretty obvious he had got a feather edge on the ball. As is so often the case, that wasted review came back to haunt them when Babar Azam was given out lbw despite replays showing the ball hitting the bat first.

This England team is really stacked right now, and they have plenty of promising youngsters waiting in the wings to make a major impact. Exciting times. A phrase not often said about the limited over sides.