3rd ODI: Pietersen guides England to series victory

By Sohail Zafar on Saturday, 18th February 2012

Kevin Pietersen's century guides England to series victory over Pakistan

Kevin Pietersen scored his first one-day international century in more than three years as England clinched an unassailable 3-0 lead in the four-match series against Pakistan with a crushing nine-wicket win at Dubai Sport City on Saturday.

Pietersen (111 not out) shared a sparkling 170-run opening stand with skipper Alastair Cook (70) as England chased-down the modest 223-run victory target with more then 12 overs to spare.

Earlier, pace trio Steven Finn (3-24), Stuart Broad (3-42) and James Anderson (2-52) shared eights wickets to skittle out Pakistan for an unconvincing total of 222 after they opted to bat.

“Our bowlers were outstanding, we may have been slow to start with but to keep them to 220 on that wicket was a fantastic effort,” said Cook. “I thought everybody contributed with the ball, 220 was quite a long way below par.”

England won the first match by 130 runs and the second by 20 runs both in Abu Dhabi and will now look to avenge their 3-0 whitewash in the Test series.

“We’ll obviously enjoy it tonight, winning the series, but we’ve come here to win every game in the series and hopefully we can come back here in three days’ time and put in a really good performance again,” he said.

Pakistan VS England: Cook fell 20 short of his third successive century

Pietersen and Cook not permitted Pakistan to bounce-back in the game at a single instant while batting and mauled all bowlers all around the ground.

Cook was scampering towards his third successive hundred but fell to off-spinner Saeed Ajmal 20 runs short of the fate in 29th over. His 98-ball knock was studded with nine boundaries and a six.

Pietersen reached his century off 94 balls and hit nine fours and two sixes. Eoin Morgan contributed an unbeaten 24.

Pakistan VS England: Afridi, Akmal added 79 runs

Earlier, Shahid Afridi (51) and Umar Akmal (50) helped Pakistan recover from a difficult position with a 79-run stand for sixth wicket after they were reduced to 5-97.

Akmal caught at point off Broad in 40th over while Afridi, whose 55-ball knock was studded with three boundaries and a six, bowled out off Anderson in the subsequent over.

Umar Gul slammed a quick-fire 27-ball 27 to give late boost to scoreboard.

The fourth and final match in the series is in Dubai on Tuesday. ODI series will be followed by three Twenty20 internationals.

Pakistan VS England 3rd ODI Scorecard