Solid Cook and ruthless Finn guide England to first victory against Pakistan

Solid Cook and ruthless Finn guide England to first victory against Pakistan

Alastair Cook and Steve Finn guided England to their first victory of the series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday, February 13, 2012.

After being whitewashed in the Test series, England needed something special to turn things around. They were certainly charged up in the first One Day International (ODI) of the four-match series at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi, winning it by a massive
margin of 130 runs.

Batting first, the Poms scored 260 for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted 50 overs. Cook, skipper of the team in ODIs, was the stand out performer with the bat, as he contributed 137 runs to the total with the help of 14 classy boundaries.

He was helped by middle-order batsman Ravi Bopara, who scored a crucial knock of 50 runs from 69 deliveries.

Saeed Ajmal was once again impressive with the ball for Pakistan, as he took five wickets in the match. He got support from his spin bowling partner Shahid Afridi, who scalped a couple of wickets.

In reply, the hosts never really got going and were bundled up for 130 runs in 35 overs. Some of the batsmen got starts, but failed to capitalise in the end. Afridi was the highest run scorer for his side, contributing 28 to the total.

The main reason behind Pakistan’s collapse was the exceptional bowling spell by Finn, who used the new ball to perfection. He dismissed the first four batsmen, leaving the Men in Green with no choice but to go on the defensive.

Spinners Samit Patel and Graeme Swann also chipped in with a few wickets, leaving the opposition with no chance of a fight back.

Pakistan’s skipper Misbah-ul-Haq was disappointed after losing the match and stated, "The batting [let us down] – 260 wasn’t a big score. I know that batting under lights is difficult but we have to do better against the new ball. Otherwise the wicket
played very good. Of course, we can come back. We’re going to come back, do things right on Wednesday."

On the other hand, Cook who was named player-of-the-match, said: "Glad we got off to a winning start today. It’s a different format, less pressure around the bat. Ravi came in and played very well and that helped me. All the lads put in a good
performance. Finny bowled well, backed up by Jimmy and Broady – it was a good team performance."

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Posted by Waqar Masood on Feb 13 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry