England's pace to burn and Pakistan's problems in the field... ODI TALKING POINTS

SAM MORSHEAD AT TRENT BRIDGE: England sneaked extra singles here and there with alarming ease as the Pakistanis flapped and parried in the field like drunkards fumbling for their keys

England’s speedsters

There’s genuine pace with the new ball among England’s ranks right now and isn’t it exciting.

With Jofra Archer and Mark Wood bowling in tandem, the home fans saw dual zip and bounce the likes of which they have not come across in one-day cricket for some time.

In fact, in their first eight overs, Wood and Archer bowled at an average speed of 89mph which, according to stats gurus CricViz is the “quickest” spell by an England opening pair in the corresponding innings of any ODI in which speed data has been available.

The negative of this fast and furious approach at a ground like Trent Bridge, however, is batsmen have huge risk-reward chances. Top edges fly off for six and a half-timing a drive can easily break the infield.

So it came to pass that Fakhar Zaman and Babar Azam took the swipe-me approach, scoring 58 per cent of their runs behind square in the first 10 overs.

^{Jason Roy celebrates a century}

Mine’s a keeper

Mutter the words “specialist wicketkeeper” in our whack’em, smack’em white-ball world and you’ll often be met by grumbles, grunts and knowing looks.

Such is the need for scores in excess of 350, it has become perfectly acceptable - and commonplace - for the very best glovemen in the business to be routinely overlooked in favour of run potential and substantial strike rates.

But there will always be times when you miss the fastest hands in the game.

England have had that point illustrated twice in this series.

Firstly, at The Oval, Haris Sohail was beaten down the legside and several paces out of his crease, only for the ball to get caught in Jos Buttler’s armpit and the chance to go begging.

Then, at Trent Bridge, Buttler missed a second chance; this time it was more routine, with Moeen Ali’s drift beating Mohammad Hafeez. Buttler couldn’t complete a clean take and the opportunity was gone.

In both instances, the miss was not punished - rain curtailed the first game of the series and Hafeez holed out soon after - but at some point England will be paid to pay.

Which means Ben Foakes’ name should never be too far from any discussion about English wicketkeepers, especially given his proven ability with the bat - albeit in a much less destructive manner than Buttler or Jonny Bairstow.

England have the luxury, with seven bowling options regularly in the side and an extensive batting lineup, of being able to select a keeper for a keeper’s sake without disrupting the make-up of the team too severely. It would do them well to keep that in mind.

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Tiny boundary

The curious case of Trent Bridge’s dimensions was never so obvious than on Friday.

Right-handers facing bowlers coming in at them from the Radcliffe Road end need only have passed wind in the ball’s direction to send it to the square leg boundary, which cannot have been more than 55 metres from the wicket.

We at The Cricketer are all for runfests but is this particular ground starting to suffer from a weight of expectation when it comes to mammoth totals?

England have taken 488 off Australia and 441 off Pakistan in the past three years, and could realistically make 500 here, with a slice of luck, in the not too distant future. Mark Wood even agreed with the notion in a pre-match interview.

So does Trent Bridge now feel something of an obligation to be that first 500-plus List A venue? Would it feel it has let the side down if that record eventually falls to St Kitts or Grenada or Dubai?

And will that only encourage the venue to stack the odds in the batsmen’s favour yet further?

Railway rant

There was comotion and kerfuffle among cricket’s fourth estate prior to the game, courtesy of a points failure at Nottingham station.

Several BBC commentators plus a handful of hacks were stuck on a train that was going absolutely nowhere, with the clock ticking down to the start of play.

Panic ensued when an announcement was made that the train would have to divert to Derby, before a pitstop in nearby Long Eaton - a mere 15 minutes from Trent Bridge by taxi - was negotiated. Most managed to make the game just one or two overs in.

One long-term resident of England Cricket press boxes could not contain his frustration, however, chuntering under his breath about “f***** National Rail”, as he shuffled in late.

Network Rail got away with one there.

^{Shoaib Malik smashes up his own stumps attempting a late cut}

Pakistan’s century problem

Pakistan have had nine centurions in their last 14 one-day internationals but they have only won two of those games. 

Here, Babar Azam produced another excellent individual knock and got his runs at marginally better than one a ball… but he failed to hit a boundary for 10 overs between the 28th and 38th of the innings and lost his wicket without a set partner just before the final powerplay.

It may have been glorious to watch, but in the larger context of the Pakistan innings as a whole, should he have done more? Or is that just expecting too much?

Field of woe

Pakistan’s lack of control with the ball in this series has not been helped at all by their sloppiness in the field, and the gaffes were back again at Trent Bridge.

Fakhar Zaman got nowhere near a good chance off Jason Roy running backwards at extra cover, Junaid Khan drew derision for a horrible blunder on the boundary early in the innings and then spilled Root at mid-off, and England sneaked extra singles here and there with alarming ease as the Pakistanis flapped and parried in the field like drunkards fumbling for their keys.

Such is the structure of the World Cup, they may be able to afford one or two days where performance levels in the field are so low but in a knockout match it could mean the difference between progression and elimination.

Since Steve Rixon departed as fielding coach, the general impression among the Pakistani media is that there has been a noticeable dip in groundwork and catching. That slide must be arrested, and fast, if they are to spring a surprise this summer.

And one last thing...

With England chasing runs late on, Tom Curran benefited from an overthrow off the stumps to claim an extra two.

However, he appeared to be short of his ground when completing the second.

Sarfraz Ahmed only had one bail to take off, with another prostrate on the ground, but as the Laws have it " it shall be sufficient for the purpose of putting the wicket down to remove the remaining bail". Whether or not there was an appeal is not so clear, but England appeared to get a lifeline - Curran played a crucial role in the chase.

So Curran should have been out then? pic.twitter.com/kHVxbwcAJa

— Sam Morshead (@SamMorshead_) May 17, 2019