Azhar Ali urged his Pakistan side to learn quickly following after Alex Hales inspired England to a series clinching victory at Trent Bridge.

The tourists’ captain blamed his side’s performance in the field for the 169-run mauling, and admitted they had no answer to a record-breaking performance of 171 from Nottinghamshire’s Alex Hales.

England amassed 444-3, the highest team score in ODI history, before limiting the hapless visitors to 275 all out.

Speaking after the game, Ali pointed the finger at his charges for a plethora of missed opportunities in the field, including Wahab Riaz bowling Hales off a no ball on 72.

“It’s always disappointing,” he said of the defeat, “the wicket was really good, and lots of runs were in it.

“But 444 was too much. No balls and fielding lapses really cost us, as did line and the length misses.

“Obviously once the batsmen started going it’s hard to stop them and, at key times of the game we missed chances, like getting the wicket of Alex Hales when he was on about 70 and it was a no-ball.

“After that, he (Hales) really kicked on and the run-rate started going up.

“We didn’t start well in the field, there were three fielding lapses, and that didn’t give a good message.

“We shouldn’t have, as a unit, any excuse for that; we really didn’t set a good tone to start with.”

Despite the heavy defeat, the visitors’ skipper maintained that his side are better than their world ranking of number nine suggests.

“We just need to learn quickly, otherwise we will prove ourselves wrong,” he said.

“We are not that bad, but we have to raise our game

“Look, if you don’t get the result it’s always difficult but, as a captain, as a team, we need to stand up – we can’t take all the pressure and keep going down.

“We will try hard again, we will keep trying and we will come back strong.”

 

Trent Bridge will host an Investec Test Match between England and South Africa, and a Royal London One-Day International visit from the West Indies, in 2017.

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