Alice Capsey hit a career-best 44 from 65 balls as England comfortably beat Pakistan by 37 runs in the first one-day international against Pakistan at Derby.

But despite the margin of victory, this was a far from ruthless display, epitomised by a frustrating unbeaten last-wicket stand of 28 runs for the final Pakistan wicket, as England again failed to bowl out opponents whom they should have easily dispatched.

The captain, Heather Knight, described England’s performance as “scrappy” and “a little bit lacking in execution”. She said: “It was quite tricky to force the game on that wicket. There are a lot of things we can tidy up.”

Put in to bat under grey skies, England had managed to score 243 for nine on a stodgy pitch that had been deluged by rain on the eve of the game. But their innings never fully launched – there were bits-and-pieces contributions from all their top seven, but no one reached a half century.

Capsey came the closest, but even she struggled to pace her innings, missing several attempted reverses and ramps in her 67-run ­partnership with Amy Jones, before finally ­plonking the ball back into the hands of the bowler Nashra Sandhu in the 44th over.

Surprisingly, the usually ­flawless Jones shelled a couple of ­straightforward chances behind the stumps, helping Pakistan put a decent dent in their chase by the halfway point, reaching 106 for three. They were helped by some wayward English bowling, with the hosts conceding 40 extras to Pakistan’s eight – a record for England in the 50-over format.

Jones was given the chance to atone in both cases – holding on to edges from the same batters she had dropped, Sidra Amin and Muneeba Ali, off balls from Lauren Bell that jagged away.

The curse of Pakistan’s brittle batting then struck again, as they slumped from 149 for four to 178 for nine in eight overs. But as they finally decided to batten down the hatches, England failed to finish the job.

Knight had called for England to “soak up pressure” and play with “calculated aggression” in the eve-of-series press conference, but no one quite found that sweet spot on Thursday – least of all the captain herself.

She was dropped twice, the first time on nought trying to punch down the ground, and crawled to 29 from 49 balls before finally swiping at one from Aliya Riaz outside off and toe-ending it to the keeper. Nat Sciver-Brunt thumped back-to-back ­boundaries through the leg-side against Nida Dar but fell in similar unnecessary fashion to the same bowler two overs after her captain.

Otherwise, the remaining seven England wickets fell to spin (where have we heard that one before?) That included two to the off-spinner Umm-e-Hani, who had missed out on selection in the T20s but on Thursday took only 13 balls to remove Tammy Beaumont lbw after she failed to nail a sweep shot.

Charlie Dean – batting at No 7 for the first time since September 2021 – chipped in with a run-a-ball 20 to add impetus at the back end of the innings, but in the main there was a surprising lack of confidence on display from a side who had whitewashed their opponents in the 20-over format a mere four days ago.

England were partly hobbled by the unexpected absence of the in-form Danni Wyatt, who missed out through illness. That did, ­however, remove the coach Jon Lewis’s ­selection headache, giving him a chance to throw in all three of his spinners, as well as two seam options in Lauren Bell and Kate Cross.

All bar Sarah Glenn chimed in with wickets but there was also a lack of discipline at times, not least from Sophie Ecclestone whose full tosses provided easy middle-overs ­pickings for Dar and Riaz. Dean, though, ­eventually removed the pair in ­successive overs – Dar slog-sweeping to Beaumont in the deep, before Riaz appealed in vain to DRS after ­missing a sweep shot and being struck in front of leg stump – and a Pakistan mini-collapse of three for seven in 13 balls turned into an Ecclestone-inspired maxi-collapse that cost them the match.