February 18, 2012
Kevin Pietersen was at his brilliant best as he hit an unbeaten century to help England record a nine-wicket victory over Pakistan and wrap up the series win.
Scorecard: England 226 for 1 (Pietersen 111*, Cook 80) beat Pakistan 222 all out (Afridi 51, Finn 3-24) by nine wickets
February 18, 2012
Kevin Pietersen was at his brilliant best as he hit an unbeaten century to help England record a nine-wicket victory over Pakistan and wrap up the series win.
Scorecard: England 226 for 1 (Pietersen 111*, Cook 80) beat Pakistan 222 all out (Afridi 51, Finn 3-24) by nine wickets
England won the first two matches of the one-day international series in the UAE easily, thanks largely to Alastair Cook's batting, and the captain again made an important contribution in game three.
Kevin Pietersen returned to form with 111 not out as England cruised to victory in Dubai, clinching the series
Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first in Dubai, but were all out for just 222.
The result was never in doubt once Cook and Pietersen got into their stride. The skipper was eventually out for 80, but his opening partner and Eoin Morgan guided the team to 226-1 with more than 12 overs to spare.
Pietersen has struggled for form in both Test and one-day cricket during the tour, so was delighted to score an unbeaten 111 from just 98 balls.
'Most importantly it's a series win for England away from home,' he said.
'It was nice to get some runs. I said yesterday I'm not at the stage where I don't know where my next run is coming from – I'm just getting out in silly ways. I was a bit more positive this evening.'
Steve Finn had earlier continued his impressive form with the ball, taking the wickets of Imran Farhat, Mohammad Hafeez and Adnan Akmal on his way to figures of 3-24 from ten overs.
Shahid Afridi (51) and Umar Akmal (50) threatened to guide Pakistan to a respectable total, but Stuart Broad and James Anderson accounted for them in consecutive overs and the nominal hosts collapsed from 176-5 to 222 all out.
Courtesy: Metro.co.uk
