England chose to bat first in the World Cup warm-up match against Pakistan at the SCG.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad returned for England, while Alex Hales and Gary Ballance, who was playing for the first time since September having broken a little finger a few weeks ago, won an opportunity ahead of the tournament. Ian Bell, Chris Woakes, Steven Finn and James Taylor were rested, but looked certain to play on Saturday.
While England were playing with a team of XI, Pakistan used the game – a match that does not carry List A status – to give 12 of their players some match time. Umar Akmal was expected to keep wicket, while Nasir Jamshed was given an opportunity at the top of the order having been called into the squad a couple of days ago.
It was a glorious day in Sydney and while the crowd was by no means large – perhaps 500 strong at present – the majority were clearly supporting Pakistan.
England: 1 Moeen Ali, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Gary Ballance, 4 Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Jos Buttler (wkt), 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Tredwell, 11 James Anderson
Pakistan: 1 Ahmed Shehzad, 2 Nasir Jamshed, 3 Younis Khan, 4 Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), 5 Sohaib Maqsood, 6 Haris Sohail, 7 Umar Akmal (wkt), 8 Shahid Afridi, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Yasir Shah, 11 Ehsan Adil, 12 Sohail Khan
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