The particular circumstances surrounding this series mean that many England players must know the sky blue shirts are theirs only on loan. None of them seem resigned to giving them up easily, and they furthered their cause by romping to a second convincing victory over Pakistan, this time by 52 runs, and wrapping up the ODI series with a game to spare. In Saqib Mahmood this impromptu side contains a bowler who looks capable of making a significant long-term impact. In the first match he took two wickets in his first three balls, and though he had to wait a little longer to be rewarded on this occasion he was again outstanding, and in eight excellent overs took two wickets at a cost of only 21 runs. As England bowled their way to victory there was strong support from Lewis Gregory, who scored 40 vital runs and took three wickets, and Craig Overton, who bowled eight overs that cost 24 runs and another one that went for 15. But perhaps the bowler who most enjoyed this match ended it on the losing side. Hasan Ali’s journey to the honours board at Lord’s has been long and literally painful, but in the second game of this curiosity of a series he stamped his name among the legends with an excellent display of bowling. Then, having outfoxed so many of the home side’s batsmen, he went on to outperform a few of his own. This was Hasan’s third ODI appearance since 2019. A back injury ruled him out for more than a year and when he returned he promptly injured his groin, an enforced absence that in the end reached 20 months. The 27-year-old’s performance here, which brought his first ODI five-fer since 2017, will be the cause of particular pride given both the effort and dedication required to get here and the quality of bowling that earned it. “There was a phase when I lost nearly everything,” Hasan said in May. “It was a frustrating time and I used to cry. I had one aim and that was to make a comeback so that the world will remember me.” England’s batsmen certainly will, after the sustained pace and aggression of this display. Each of his wickets was celebrated with great flamboyance, though there was a little extra vim after he ripped out the stumps of Ben Stokes, England’s captain. He followed that by dismissing both John Simpson and Overton in his next over, leaving England struggling at 160 for seven. They had reached that tally only because of a partnership of 97 off 80 balls between Phil Salt (60) and James Vince (56), peppered with aggressive shotmaking and smart running. Some vital late-innings runs from Gregory and Brydon Carse dragged England to a total of 247, which felt a little light should any of Pakistan’s key batsmen find form. But Imam-ul-Haq fell to Gregory’s first ball of the day and Babar Azam, Pakistan’s captain and the world’s top-ranked ODI batsmen, was trapped lbw for 19, falling cheaply to Mahmood once again. So far in this series Mahmood has bowled 10 deliveries at Azam and dismissed him twice, while conceding only four runs. The normally prolific Fakhar Zaman simply never got going, and in over an hour at the crease faced 45 balls for 10 runs. When he fell in the 14th over Pakistan were 53 for four, and batting their way to another inauspicious defeat. There was still time for Hasan to return, bat in hand, for an eye-catching cameo that included a particularly brutal assault on Matt Parkinson, 22 runs off four viciously assaulted balls, and for Saud Shakeel to score a half-century. It was his dismissal, after being tempted into a slog sweep by Parkinson and caught by Overton in the deep, that finally extinguished Pakistan’s hopes. “It was pretty awesome,” said Gregory. “To say you’ve played for your country at the home of cricket is amazingly special for everyone. “The one-day team is incredibly difficult to break into, but all we can do is put in performances. Sport and the world is very strange. There are injuries around the corner, there’s obviously Covid, there will be opportunities and it’s up to us to put our hands up and show what we’re capable of.”