England Won 243-9 (Capsey 44, Jones 37) Pakistan 206 for 9 (Muneeva 34, Ecclestone 3-26) 37 runs
Pakistan beat England by 37 runs in the 13th match and will continue their quest to beat England in ODIs with two more matches remaining at Taunton on Sunday and Chelmsford on Wednesday.
Capsi top-scored with a career-best ODI score of 44 as England set Pakistan a target of 244 to win. Pakistan had never scored more than 209 in this format against England but with England in a difficult position they were unable to close the match out, finishing at 206 for 9.
Capsey’s innings ended a streak of six consecutive runs without scoring a six in ODIs. Prior to that, he had scored five, 31 and one in England’s emphatic 3-0 T20I series against Pakistan.
Pakistan performed well in the first powerplay but struggled against the spin of Ecclestone and Dean, who took five wickets between them. England captain Heather Knight described the victory as a “brawl” at the presentation. Seamers Lauren Bell and Kate Cross took two wickets each.
Put into bat, England, as in the first two T20Is, had several moderate contributors, including Amy Jones, Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver Brunt, who all reached the 30 mark but then failed to make a splash. Kapsy, who was man of the match at Northampton with 31 runs and two wickets, heralded her success here again when she overturned an lbw decision on Dar when she was on 35. But she hung her head in disappointment after spooning a return catch to Nashra Sandhu with six remaining in England’s innings.
Kapsy took the first boundary off 18 balls, a well-timed drive off Aliya Riaz caught the gap between extra cover and mid-off and two balls later a sumptuous drive earned her a four.
After Knight finished on a laborious 29 from 49 balls that included two chances, Capsey and Jones forged a combined partnership of 67 before Jones swept Dar and top-edged Ayesha Zafar at square leg for 37.
Openers Maia Bouchet and Beaumont fell lbw to Nashra and Umm-e-Hani respectively, leaving England at 61 for 2 in the 14th over.
Knight was dropped for nothing off a ball hit towards mid-on by Nashra but Hani capitalised on the opportunity and once again Hani was the culprit as Knight on 18 smashed Dar straight back to midwicket and missed the chance.
It was Aliya who eventually got Knight out, slicing sharply off a ball pitched wide and then putting a thick edge to Najiha Alvi behind the stumps. Shivaay Brunt fell in a similar fashion, trying to hit back another wide ball from Aliya, but could only get behind the edge as England retreated to 118 for 4 just past the halfway mark of their innings.
After Capsy’s dismissal, England continued to lose wickets without Danny Wyatt, who had scored 87 off 48 balls in the third and final T20I at Headingley but woke up unwell on Thursday. Dean played a brilliant cameo of 20 before being run out to give Dar his third wicket of the match. Sarah Glenn kept scoreless on 16 off 13 balls as England reached 243 for 9 in the 50 overs.
Chasing, Sidra Amin was dropped by wicketkeeper Jones for two off a Bell delivery but Jones held on moments later and Sidra hit back a beautiful delivery from Bell which was pitched outside the off stump and grazed the outside edge on its way to the keeper but did not help her score.
Pakistan were 66 for 1 after 15 overs but just after the drinks break Eccleston hit Sadaf Shamas onto stumps to get him out for 28.
Muneeba Ali survived when Jones failed to keep the edge when the batsman attempted a cut shot to Dean, but then Ecclestone poked a superb ball through the gap between bat and pad to dismiss Ayesha Zafar for single figures. Muneeba reached 34 but fell driving to another fine ball from Bell, swinging full to get an edge and being caught behind.
Pakistan were four wickets down and needed about a run a ball going into the final 20 overs but when captain Dar slog-swept Dean to Beaumont at deep midwicket England got the breakthrough they needed.
In the next over, Ecclestone pushed the advancing Fatima Sana onto her front pad on the line of the leg stump to claim her third wicket, before Dean had Aliyah out lbw and Pakistan had lost three wickets for seven runs in the space of 15 balls.
From there, the task was too tough for Pakistan, although a dogged 28-run streak from Nashra and Naziha for the 10th wicket prevented England from finishing the match off completely. The hosts faced 157 dot balls to leave Pakistan on 203, but England gifted 40 extra balls, including 31 wides, leaving them with a lot of work to do before they leave the derby.
Valkelly Baines is Women’s Cricket Editor at ESPNcricinfo.
