England went with Ian Bell, fresh from winning the trophy for Warwickshire and Paul Collingwood, who didn't play in the 3rd ODI due to a virus. Playing these guys was the right thing to do, but not in place of Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara. Bopara hadn't been bad but England had to drop him to bring in the in-form Ian Bell but Wright shouldn't have been dropped. He should have played, instead of Yardy. Ajmal Shahzad should have replaced Bresnan. These changes can still be made, since an ODI is remaining in the series, the last of the summer. Or Fall I shall say.

Pakistan won the toss and choose to bat first. Jimmy Anderson started well but failed to pick up any wicket. Bresnan wasn't too bad either but he too, couldn't take a wicket. Anderson gave only 8 runs in his first 3 overs but was taken out of the attack by Strauss. But no for too long, as he replaced Bresnan. Broady, the wicket-taker provided the breakthrough. In his last 21 games he has taken at least a wicket in all matches except for the one against Scotland. Swann took a wicket in his first over - again! And got Yousuf in his 2nd over. Swann fetched 2 more wickets to put England in a good position. But I'm not sure Fawad Alam's wicket was good for which team. He made 29 from 52 deliveries. He just tries to take a single on each delivery. And man, how many times does he succeed at that? He always fails to accelerate. Failed in the 1st Twenty20 too. Cannot say the same about the 2nd Twenty20 because Pakistan didn't even last long enough to accelerate. Coming back to yesterday's game, till the 48th over, it looked like the target wouldn't be more than 235 but Pakistan, who scored only 13 runs in their first 3 overs of batting Powerplay, smashed Anderson and Bresnan for 42 runs in 2 overs! The figures of both the bowlers were not bad until their last over.

It seemed like England should win this one, after being 77/0 in 10 overs and 107/0 in 19 overs. But as soon as Davies got out (when England were 113), it started going downhill. Trott failed to score runs, even though he tried and made 4 from 16 balls. Strauss, the top scorer (68) went soon. Bell looked promising as he lasted for just about an hour, 41 balls. But he had to hit, the required rate and the pressure were increasing. Yardy and Bresnan, England's 'all-rounders' failed. And that put all the pressure on Morgan, as he too got out, trying to hit. Bresnan has usually done well with the bat but Yardy has failed with both the bat and the ball in one-dayers. Teams are not using the batting Powerplay well. Some, like Pakistan, just don't take it and hence it is forced on them, in the last 5 overs. England should have taken it when Belly and Moggy were batting. Ian Botham always talks about this but I disagreed with him on this in the 3rd ODI, you don't always need to take the Powerplay early. When the required run rate is low, as it was in the 3rd one-dayer, you don't need to take the Powerplay. Powerplays don't just let you score runs but may also take your wickets. The bowling was fab, 7 of the 10 batsmen were bowled. Ajmal, Gul, Akhtar were all amazing.

MOM: Abdul Razzaq

I don't know how much England will consider this series in choosing the team for the next one-day after this series, which will be played in Australia after the Ashes and the Twenty20s. If they consider this series, they may drop Collingwood, which they may do in the last one-day of the on-going series too. I don't think they should do this though. In this series, they may do it to bring Wright in. In the next one, they'll need to bring KP in. None of the current batsman is bad, but Trott is a bit slow and if anyone, then he shall be dropped.

Kevin Pietersen during the 4th one day at Lord's>>>

In a shocking press statement, Ryan Sidebottom has announced his retirement from International cricket. England have not picked him in Tests in the near past and I guess, that's what encouraged Sidebottom to retire.

England play Pakistan in the last match of the summer, on September 22 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton at 13:30 GMT. Until next time, take care. Cheers!

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