Pakistan v England, 3rd ODI, Dubai, 18 February, 2012

Keeping position is a big problem for Pakistan in ODIs

Sarfraz, Akmals and Haider have all failed so far

Decent recovery in the end, especially considering England's lack of form apart from Cook and Ravi.

Finn has been amazing

Bopara clearly should have played tests ahead of Morgan(or at least the last test)

8th century opening partnership for England v. Pakistan and 4th outside England. Last opening century partnership was 129 v. India at Kolkata by Cook & Kieswetter last October. However England were all out for 176 in that match!

Allan D wrote:8th century opening partnership for England v. Pakistan and 4th outside England. Last opening century partnership was 129 v. India at Kolkata by Cook & Kieswetter last October. However England were all out for 176 in that match!

That was a pretty crazy match.

Pietersen's sealed his spot for a while then. Good innings.
I reckon this is the first time that England have won three straight ODIs away from home in matches not involving Bangles, Eire or Zimbots since 2009 (two wins in WI and then the Champions trophy wins over Lanka and South Africa). Prior to that, I'm sure it was in the Ashes tour tri nations where England won their last three or four matches of the tournament.

If KP and Chef are going to take it in turns to score tons - we're in pretty good shape!

Good stuff, all in all, but England were chasing way more than they should have been and, possibly, would have been, had Cook not seen the open goal of five down for peanuts and thought "this would be a good time to take off our best bowlers and bring on the udders to get milked to buggery for the next thirty overs".

Grinds my gears, that does. It did when Strauss was captain and it still does under Cook.

Good to see Pietersen score a hundred. Good, positive signs from him. He attacked the bowlers. Had a bit of luck, but then, he generally does. He's now opened seven times for England and been involved in six partnerships of fifty or better (including 2 x 100 partnerships). That's got to be better than Kieswetter, who should be dropped after his poor keeping in this series. I supported him as a batsman the other day but his keeping was woeful again today, and when you add that on to his poor batting, I don't see what benefit we're getting out of him. It would be nice to get Buttler in the team, but he's no better as a keeper. Might prove to be a gun batsman though.

Patel is a potential weak link - doesn't spin it enough and not quite good enough as a batsman. Bresnan can have his place for ODIs in England. As for overseas, I haven't quite given up hope on Adil Rashid, he's young enough to come back.

Well that were a rogering.

furriner wrote:Well that were a rogering.

The seamers were outstanding.

Well done England.

KP really needed that, I know most of his runs were scored once the game was effectively won but to finally get that ODI century monkey off his back hopefully means he can start to play his natural game again.

Still concerns about a couple of the batsmen but this is starting to look like a decent unit. We've had lots of false dawns with the JAMODI side since, well, about 1992 though...

KP's footwork still looks a bit ADHDish against spinners buty I think he's getting there - hopefully, he will kick on from here. It's been a bad series for Kieswetter - dropped down the order and his keeping has been exposed. Buttler for the last ODI?

It's encouraging that we've won an ODI series in these conditions though. Granted, Pakistan may have taken their foot off the gas a little after the test series win.

The keeper debate will rumble on as it has done for years!

Shame Prior is such a crap limited overs player, as he's well and truly nailed the Test spot in recent years. Just has the wrong shots for it I guess.

Davies is a better keeper than either Kieswetter, Buttler or Bairstow - yet his batting style is unsuited to the hurly burly of the lower middle order.

Buttler deserves a chance in the next match. With the gloves on.

Henry wrote:Buttler deserves a chance in the next match. With the gloves on.

What about Bairstow?

Yesterday was not the nearest an English player has got to making 3 consecutive ODI 100s. In 5 matches against the Windies, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (away) in 2000 Alec Stewart made scores of 74*, 101, 100*, 97 & 87*.

Kieswetter looks terrible with the gloves. England in a canter but Pakistan is a poor ODI unit.

We're not in a position to be fussy about who we beat in ODIs.

Excellent bowling from Finn again

KP is too good of a player to miss out too many times! I am a little concerned about the Pakistani ODI side now, they lack a decent aggressive batsman in the top 5, they lack a pace bowling all rounder and most importantly a keeper batsman.

From 50 onwards KP looked in top nick... all the muscle shots were back in his armoury. Amazing how easy this series has been. I reckon you're all being pretty harsh on Beddy.

He's only had one bat in three games.

So, yeah, harsh.

Keeping's always been a bit hit and miss, though. But even the best in the world shell a few.