By David Gavrilovic

England gained vital experience for this winter's World Cup

England's blind cricket team ended their four-match contest against Pakistan with a morale-boosting victory, despite losing the series 3-1.

Pakistan wrapped up the first three matches to put the series beyond England, who won the final encounter at Worcester's New Road by four wickets.

England will count themselves unlucky not to have at least tied the series. They had Pakistan in deep trouble at 129-5 in the opener before rain ended the match.

Pakistan went on to claim a convincing win in the re-arranged fixture. The series win earned them the brand new Redditch Gujarkhan friendship trophy.

The final match was the closest and most exciting game of the series.

Pakistan batted well to score 333-9 from their 40 overs and England's Rory Field claimed three wickets with Andy Powers taking two.

Sam Murray also took a stunning catch on the boundary in what was an impressive fielding performance from the hosts.

Everyone got a lot more experience and England will be the stronger for it England captain Heindrich Swanepoel

The England innings started badly, with two early wickets falling, but then totally blind batsman Nathan Foy hit 162 and England captain Heindrich Swanepoel scored 64 to share a 228-run partnership and give England a great chance of winning the game.

But Pakistan claimed four quick wickets leaving England needing a run a ball from the last three overs before Mark Pickup steered the team home with help from Keryn Seal, who scored quickly at the end.

England centurion Foy said: "It's fantastic and really means a lot for England to beat Pakistan and certainly even more now that they're world champions.

"As for my own performance, a century is certainly very satisfying, especially because they've gone away and worked on their bowling.

"I'd imagine they've actually got one of the best bowling attacks in the world now.

It was a great series and we enjoyed the cricket Pakistan captain Abdul Razaq

"I do need to thank my runner Luke Sugg, although he did run me out, actually without him turning singles into twos, I don't think I'd have got anywhere near a hundred.

This result left England with some positives to take from the series including a promising debut from Dave Powers and some impressive fielding from the team.

England captain Swanepoel said: "It was a very tough series. We did play the world champions and they're not world champions for nothing.

"We were using this as a development series to get a squad of 17 players ready for the World Cup in Pakistan at the end of the year.

"For me, the high point was that the squad came through the series and everyone had a chance and got a lot more experience.

"England will be the stronger for it."