World Cricket Live Update

Pakistan 230/8 (48.4 overs) defeated Ireland 229/9 (50.0 overs) by 2 wickets
The ODI Series between Ireland and Pakistan came to a thrilling conclusion last Sunday as Kamran Akmal and tail-ender Wahab Riaz won the match for Pakistan. The visitors were in dire straits at 17/4, and also 133/7, but the wicket-keeper and fast bowler put on a show scoring around 90 off the last 10-12 overs. Ireland had earlier managed 229/9 on the back of Ed Joyce who became only the second player behind Eoin Morgan to score an ODI century for two different countries. Ireland's score was definitely under-par, however they more than made up for it with the ball, as Trent Johnston and Tim Murtagh ran through the top order. Unfortunately for the Irish they couldn't capitalize and they will be kicking themselves after a great chance for the first ODI series win by an associate against a full member nation.

England (354 and 287/5dec) defeated New Zealand (174 and 220) by 247 runs
After matching England for three of four innings in the first match, New Zealand had high hopes to remain competitive and perhaps pinch a win in the second test. They failed to do this though as England finetuned their Ashes preparations with a convincing 247 run win. Joe Root scored his maiden test century, while Alistair Cook made 130 in the second innings. Their bowlers were superb with Graeme Swann picking up 10 wickets for the match. New Zealand, on the other hand, were quite disappointing in the batting department, scoring lower than both England's totals in their innings. Their first innings of 174 was incredibly disappointing with no.10 and 11 Wagner and Boult scoring nearly a third of the runs.

The teams play a short three match ODI series in preparation for the Champions Trophy tournament which starts next week. I will post a preview of what will be the last ever edition of this tournament sometime in the next coming days.

Netherlands v South Africa @ Amstelveen
The single ODI between Netherlands and South Africa has just started with South Africa winning the toss and batting. They lost two early wickets but have now steadied to be 67/2 after 14 overs. Colin Ingram is unbeaten on 21, while JP Duminy is on 14. Mudassar Bukhari picked up the breakthrough of Petersen, while debutant Paul van Meekeren dismissed Hamish Amla. Hopefully the Dutch can continue to fight and make a match of this.