When England loose their first game against Netherland victory was very necessary for them. Kevin Pietersen, who passed a late fitness test on an Achilles injury, showed how crucial his presence was as he top-scored with 58 off 38 balls in England's total of 185-5.
Salman Butt (28 off 23 balls) dominated the early scoring but he followed next ball when he top-edged an attempted pull to Ravi Bopara at gully.Captain Younus Khan brought up the 50, with a sweep to the boundary in Graeme Swann's first over, but it had taken until the eighth over to reach the landmark.
Shoaib Malik (20) edged an attempted slash-drive to James Foster behind the stumps to leave Pakistan facing a heavy defeat.With 84 needed off the last 5 overs it was now or never for the batting side and Afridi's dismissal - caught by sub fielder Eoin Morgan at long-on off Graeme Swann - at the start of the 16th over signalled the death knell for his team's hopes.
Yasir Arafat (4) was caught at wide long-off by Wright to end Broad's final over and give the fast bowler figures of 3-0-17-3 - an excellent comeback after a harrowing last over against the Dutch on Friday.England's 185, after being put into bat, was an above-par score on a pitch assisting the spinners.Gul, on at the Vauxhall End, struck in his first over when Wright (34 off 16 balls) backed to leg and was bowled by a yorker.
England skipper , (15 off 11 balls) had a brief stay before he holed out to Afridi on the long-off boundary off Ajmal, who returned to finish off with an outstanding spell of 2-8 from his last two overs. Pietersen's innings ended in the same over when he got an outside edge to short third-man.
Foster (14 off 8 balls) was dropped at short fine-leg on 0, off Gul, before he helped Dimitri Mascarenhas (16 off 12 balls) put on 27 for the sixth-wicket (including 15 off the penultimate over from Afridi).
Foster was dropped again (this time on 13) by Butt at deep backward point in the final over from Gul. The bowler also had a couple of costly aberrations as he allowed the batsmen to twice run through for over-throws.
Pakistan now go into their last group match in the knowledge that victory over the Netherlands must be achieved by a sufficiently large margin to pip the Dutch for qualification into the next phase of the tournament.
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