Cricket: England seal series with crushing win

Published on Sunday 19 February 2012 02:23

This is getting ridiculous. England are not beating Pakistan in this one-day series, they are thrashing them. A whitewash is imminent. So inept and clueless in the Test matches, this England side have completely dominated the three one-day matches thus far and in conditions that should, according to all sense and knowledge, help the opposition.

How? It is a good question and one that only the very best sides in the world have found the answer to. Despite Alastair Cook’s continued magnificence with the bat – two consecutive centuries followed by an 80 – it is the bowlers that should be taking the plaudits after Cook’s men built up an unassailable 3-0 lead in Dubai yesterday.

Not once in this series have the Pakistan batsmen got away from them and only in one innings in the Test series did they. That is sustained excellence from a group of bowlers responsible for taking England to the very top of the cricketing tree.

And it is a group. Steven Finn carried the drinks during the Test series but his combined figures from the three one-day matches are 11 wickets for 92 runs. The man who Finn should be trying to replicate because they have similar styles, Glenn McGrath, would dream of such figures. He bowls a very good off-stump line, hits an awkward length and has benefited from a strength and conditioning programme by becoming genuinely quick. That England needed 223 in this match – they eased to 226-1 – was only because Craig Kieswetter dropped an easy catch off Umar Akmal with the score at 105. If that had been taken England would have needed nearer 180 where the good pitch warranted a score in excess of 250.

The bowlers are magnificent. The good news is the batsmen are rediscovering some zest and form. Cook in good nick is a damned difficult man to dismiss. He decides on a method and sticks to it assiduously which made his downfall more surprising as he had looking in command. When he gets it right he is wonderful and in the past 15 months he has got an awful lot right.

No one will ever accuse him of providing aesthetic pleasures. He is functional, clinical and effective. He is also aware of the need to adapt and he does it through hard work with batting coach, Graham Gooch.

It must be a relief for the dressing room that Kevin Pietersen also banished his recent poor form with an excellent century, his first since November 2008. Despite having some good fortune he showed some of the spark and confidence of more successful times. Sometimes he masks his insecurity by being overly confident or aggressive, in word and attempted deed. Not this time. He was confident before the match but also content and settled. It makes a difference. A cluttered mind does not lend itself to good performance.

Eoin Morgan would also have benefited from being promoted to first drop. Thirty minutes batting in a match, despite the result already being decided, is worth hours and hours of practice in the nets.

What next then for England? A 4-0 whitewash would help expunge the memory of the poor Test series. Now Gooch has been confirmed as full-time batting coach, the batting unit need to prepare for Sri Lanka and to support their bowlers. If they do that then this one-day series could be seen as the start of England’s true dominance.

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