James Vince hits 70 as England Lions win opener against Pakistan A

A captain's innings from James Vince helped England Lions to a comfortable five-wicket victory in the first one-day international against Pakistan A in Dubai.

A captain's innings from James Vince helped England Lions to a comfortable five-wicket victory in the first one-day international against Pakistan A in Dubai.

Vince (70) led from the front after the Lions first overcame the injury absences of seamers Liam Plunkett and Jamie Overton to dismiss their hosts for 192.

The Lions then completed the chase with almost nine overs to spare at the ICC Academy ground.

Overton was ruled out for the whole series with a foot injury, while Plunkett's plans to join up with England this weekend in South Africa before their limited-overs series there are on hold because of a thigh strain.

The Lions excelled with the ball nonetheless, Tom Curran (three for 29) doing most damage, before Vince and Sam Billings - who are both set to feature for England's two Twenty20 games with South Africa next month - combined well with the bat.

After Vince won the toss, Surrey seamer Curran made a breakthrough with the new ball and, after taking a diving one-handed catch at backward-point off Tom Westley's off-spin, returned to pull off an athletic return catch to oust Pakistan top-scorer Fawad Alam (51).

Like Westley and Craig Overton, Nottinghamshire seamer Jake Ball took two wickets - the second courtesy of a fine catch at deep midwicket by Joe Clarke to dismiss Bilal Asif.

Vince and Dawid Malan gave the Lions a perfect start in reply, with an opening stand of 103 in just over 20 overs.

Malan hit five fours before edging a cut at left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz to go for 41.

The impressive Nawaz then bowled Westley first ball and when Vince was run out in the 28th over, the Lions were 125 for three.

But Billings and Liam Dawson steadied the ship with a fourth-wicket stand of 43.

Dawson fell when he hooked into the hands of Fakhar Zaman at deep square-leg, but Billings sealed the win with only his second boundary in 52 balls.