England 250-4 (50 overs) beat Pakistan 230 all out, by 20 runs
If you’d told me a month ago that England would get whitewashed in the tests, but lead the subsequent ODI series 2-0, I would have done one of three things. I’d have either punched you in the stomach for wasting my time; reported you to the police for taking illicit narcotics; or suggested politely that you needed psychiatric help.
If you’d gone on to suggest that Alastair Cook – the guy Mike Atherton and others didn’t want in the side – would have scored back to back tons at a strike rate double that of Kevin Pietersen’s, I definitely would have called the men in white coats.
Yet here we are. Could this tour get any more bizarre? Next you’ll be telling me that Ravi Bopara finally looks like proper international batsman …
Our victories in the first two ODIs have been the perfect antidote to our test defeats. I know it’s somewhat hypocritical to go on about them – as we often declare these kind of games irrelevant when we lose them – but they really do signal some positives.
For starters, we can put the debate about Alastair Cook’s role in the ODI side to bed. His captaincy has been sound and his batting an inspiration. He does have some shots in his locker after all. It’s also encouraging because it’s vital to have a captain (in all forms of the game) who can score runs.
Players like Graham Gooch turned into titans when captaining England. Goochie was a good player when he was just one of the boys – but once he was made captain he turned into the batting equivalent of superman. Athers also seemed to score more runs when captain.
Michael Vaughan’s batting, on the other hand, went into terminal decline once he became skipper and slid down the order. He still scored the occasional century – but these were fleeting reminders of his magnificent form as an opener.
Vaughan averaged over fifty at the top of the order (when he was just one of the lads) but only mid-thirties as captain. Consequently, it’s more than reassuring that Cook falls into the first category. In fact, when you consider that he’s likely to lead the test team for years once Strauss retires, it’s bloody marvellous news.
Cook has obviously been the star performer in the first two games – he’s become the only England captain to score successive hundreds in ODIs – but honourable mentions must also go to Steve Finn and ‘Rav Bop’ as J-Lo and Su Bo like to call him.
Finn is looking better and better at the moment. He’s put on a bit of pace (although whether he can keep this up when bowling 20+ overs a day is another matter) and his accuracy seems a little better too.
Put simply, the calls for Finn to earn a test recall are only going to get louder. If you’ve got not faith in Eoin Morgan, and don’t like the look of the alternative batting options, why not simply choose Finn instead? He might contribute more the cause. Personally though, Bresnan is probably still ahead of Finn in the queue. His batting certainly helps.
Ravi Bopara also seems to be blossoming at number four. He looked skittish when he arrived at the crease in the first game, and could easily have been out lbw on one particular occasion, but he eventually found his composure and compiled a useful innings. He played well yesterday too. We’ve seen glimpses of talent from Ravi in the past, so it’s important not to go too over the top about a couple of successful outings, but the signs are certainly good.
So can England win the remaining ODIs and secure their own little whitewash? Stranger things have happened. This magical mystery tour is getting more surreal by the second.
James Morgan
