England defeated Pakistan by nine wickets in the first ODI, courtesy a poor performance with the bat by the touring team. Batting first at Cardiff, Pakistan were bowled out for a lowly 141 in less than 36 overs, with England pacer Saqib Mahmood claimed 4/42 to rock Pakistan's innings, whose highest individual score was Fakhar Zaman's 47. England got home in 21.5 overs with half-centuries from Dawid Malan and Zak Crawley giving the hosts a 1-0 lead.
Following Pakistan's shambolic performance, Michael Vaughan took a shot at the team. Posting a couple of tweets directed at Pakistan's performance, the former England captain called their outing 'pathetic'.
"For England to rock up only yesterday as a team & perform like they did tells us so much about the culture of the white ball team .. very, very impressive .. for Pakistan they were PATHETIC .. It’s the only way to describe a performance like that," Vaughan tweeted.
Vaughan posted the above tweet at the end of the match, but had also posted a tweet at the end of the Pakistan innings. "Love watching Pakistan play Cricket... A team that can beat any team in the world on any given day but also lose to any team on any given day," the other tweet read.
{{/usCountry}}Vaughan posted the above tweet at the end of the match, but had also posted a tweet at the end of the Pakistan innings. "Love watching Pakistan play Cricket... A team that can beat any team in the world on any given day but also lose to any team on any given day," the other tweet read.
{{/usCountry}}Captain Babar Azam lamented his team's performance, saying Pakistan are looking forward to the second ODI at Lord's to even things up. "Credit to England for this. "We didn't get momentum, or a big partnership. Fakhar carried his form on from South Africa. We are looking forward to Lord's and we have to try and do our best," he said after the match.
The match saw six players making their debut – five from England in Brydon Carse, John Simpson, Lewis Gregory, Phil Salt and Crawley and one from Pakistan, Saud Shakeel. The England team was assembled after the preliminary squad had detected three Covid positive cases.