Pakistan vs England - 2nd Twenty20 International

Given the brevity of Twenty20 cricket, I will attempt to sum up my thoughts on today’s fixture, in which England comfortably beat Pakistan by 38 runs, with similar concision.

Shades of D’Artagnan

England opted to bat first today after again winning the toss, a reverse of Stuart Broad’s decision to chase in the first Twenty20 fixture between the sides – a decision which in hindsight looks to have been a very bad one given the travails of the England batsmen in failing to reach an achievable target.

Bairstow - fine half century

After a solid start to the innings from Kevin Pietersen and Craig Kieswetter it was Yorkshire youngster Jonny Bairstow that took the innings by the scruff of the neck and propelled England with a flamboyant unbeaten 60. Success has not been instant for Bairstow in international cricket, but on today’s showing he certainly has a future every bit as bright as his hair. Excellent use of the feet to the Pakistan spinners, a propensity for big-hitting down the ground and blurring hand speed that had shades of D’Artagnan in his pomp about it carried England to a very competitive 150-7 at the culmination of their 20 over innings.

A Faulty Exocet

Jos Buttler, another of England’s middle order youngsters of immense promise and expectation, had a case of déjà vu on the very same track in Dubai today. Many of you will have seen some of his explosive, innovative and sometimes downright outrageous innings for Somerset and England Lions in the limited overs game, but the fuse on this ballistic West Country batsman is yet to be ignited on the international scene. After drilling one exocet through the covers for four off the bowling of the ever impressive Umar Gul, Buttler fell in very similar fashion to his dismissal in the first Twenty20 fixture on Thursday. Attempting a scoop over short fine leg that has become his trademark on the county scene, but a shot that saw him find that man on Thursday, Buttler’s “if at first you don’t succeed” mentality backfired spectacularly, the canny Gul clean bowling the Somerset man.

Buttler will have his day, rest assured of that, but it may be worth Jos remembering that scooping Umar Gul at the death and doing the same to a domestic level bowler are two challenges of vastly differing difficulty.

‘Mini Boom Boom’

Well, not quite sure what to say about this chap Awais Zia! After his fearless, gun-slinging display on Thursday where he managed to raise the hackles of Steven Finn, just about everyone in world cricket was waiting in anticipation for the next innings of this wildcard opening batsman. It took Awais until his 13^th ball in international cricket to play a defensive stroke, but any thoughts of a more reserved approach were soon to be banished.

Intent on swinging from the hip, it soon became clear that Awais possesses technique not too dissimilar to that of a pigeon moments after hurtling headlong in to a double glazed window - unbalanced, wild, and likely to perish at any given moment.  Zia’s one scoring shot, a gargantuan maximum marmalised in to the stands off the bowling of Steven Finn, came amidst an 11-ball impression of a man angrily but unsuccessfully swatting at a particularly bothersome fly.

Awais certainly brings entertainment to the table, and it is no mean feat to make Shahid Afridi look like a shrinking violet in comparison, but one has to wonder whether the young man is in above his head at this level.

Treacle Tracks

Perhaps unfairly after his recent successes with the bat, ball and in the field, attention will be focussed upon Samit Patel’s ongoing fitness issues once more today. Sent in ahead of Jos Buttler, probably to separate England’s youngsters with a more experienced campaigner, Patel not for the first time in his career found himself victim of a run-out after making 13.

The direct hit from Saeed Ajmal was a fantastic piece of fielding, but before today I had failed to realise that tracks in the UAE consisted primarily of rather thick treacle, such was Patel’s struggle to make his ground. Without even chancing a full length dive, those that have previously criticised Patel for his rotund appearance may well regain some of their lost voice.

You know you have played a poor shot when…

…Shahid Afridi rolls his eyes at it. That is indeed the fate that befell Pakistan captain Misbah ul-Haq during an ailing and increasingly desperate run chase today. Attempting a reverse sweep, Misbah made an absolute horlicks of the stroke, tying himself up in knots and looking rather ungainly in doing so. Of course, Shahid has never played an outrageously ineffective stroke, has he?

And Finally: Fielding

Fielding is given greater importance in the modern game than ever before, but Twenty20 cricket in particular is highlighting just how much of a difference it can make. Pakistan were actually much improved in the field today, taking their catches and exhibiting glimpses of individual excellence. England, though, take fielding to a whole new level.

Despite two drops a whole handful of exceptional catches were taken, and it would be interesting to know just how many runs the superb ground fielding of England saves them. In tight games I genuinely believe that fielding can have as much effect on the outcome as the batting and bowling of a side, and England are leaving nothing to chance in that respect. Having three wicket-keepers on the field simultaneously appears to be a sound tactic, given the stunning catches taken by both Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler in the deep that had almost left the Earth’s atmosphere.

On a side note, James Anderson made an appearance as substitute fielder when Jos Buttler briefly left the field. As far as substitute fielders go, that’s not a bad one, is it?

Off we go then to Abu Dhabi for the third, final and decisive Twenty20 fixture of this series. If I was a betting man, I’d get some money down on the side winning the toss winning the match. 

MasterChef bucking the trend...

Admittedly, the finished product is more beans on toast, perhaps with a sprinkle of Lea & Perrins, than the comparative basque piparade likely to be served up by many of his opposite numbers, but this chef’s dish of choice requires only a small glug of water to help it down before you realise that it satisfies every bit as much.

In the age of the swashbuckling, gun slinging limited overs opening batsman, the appointment of Alastair Cook as England One Day International captain was met with a fair degree of scepticism by a number of fans, members of the media and former players alike. Not only was Cook too much of a plodder himself, at that time averaging a shade over 30 with a ponderous strike rate of 68, but the thought of a mid-powerplay partnership involving he and Jonathan Trott was considered to be akin to a sign of impending apocalypse; the type of dreary bore fest that may even see one Geoffrey Boycott calling for a switch hit.

Cook has adapted to the ODI game

With significant onus on ‘Chef’ to prove them wrong, the Essex opener has proceeded to do so in a manner that even the most ardent of Cook aficionados could never have envisaged.

Disparate to football, the garb of a cricket captain sees no embellishment of rank, yet the physical and mental changes wrought in Cook’s limited overs batting since presiding over the ODI captaincy have revealed abundantly more than a mere gesture of status ever could. Most importantly, his statistics whilst captain show a far more impressive average of 55.93, with an adventurous strike rate comfortably in excess of 90 runs per 100 balls. Secondly, Cook has shown that the crash bang wallop model of opening batsmanship, a prerequisite for Twenty20 cricket, is not necessarily applicable to the 50 over format. Knowing your strengths, subtly manoeuvring the field and playing risk free strokes can still lead to success, it would seem.

On his way to becoming the first England captain to score successive ODI centuries whilst plundering 102 runs against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi today, a fixture which England won by 20 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead, Alastair Cook must surely now have silenced those rather more vocal doubters. Showing that there is still most definitely room for the more classical opener in ODI cricket, Captain Cook will have pleased a few purists along the way.

Thankfully for England, the side in world cricket most notorious for their failure to clear the ropes inside the first ten overs of an ODI powerplay, that old adage of building a platform before hitting out late on with wickets in hand can perhaps still prove to be a successful strategy, particularly with a batsman of Alastair Cook’s considerable class at the helm.

You'll not see nothing like the mighty Finn...

Steven Finn began his England career back in March of 2010 at Chittagong, taking a wicket in each innings on his way to match figures of 2-97 against lowly Bangladesh; an unobtrusive international bow by any strike bowlers standards.

As a tall, rangy fast-medium seamer clocking speeds in the mid-eighties the Middlesex youngster didn’t prove much of a revelation for an English cricketing nation that was on the lookout for their next serial speedster. Despite his rather more impressive returns in two home Test matches against the same opponents of 15 wickets at an average of 17.87, Finn remained a raw talent with wicket taking ability but a tendency to lack control.

In the aftermath of those series, opinion on Finn was split. A genuine wicket taker that is worth the additional runs he would concede, proclaimed some; a tad too expensive for Test cricket, contended others.

Steven Finn - The real deal?

England's selectors, it transpires, sided with the others. Nevertheless, no secret was made of the faith that was held in the promise of this 6ft 7” seamer, and the precautionary measure of safeguarding an earmarked future star against the type of stress injuries that so often plague a young body put through the rigours of fast bowling was henceforth adopted.

Off Finn went, tasked with undertaking a strength and conditioning programme made to measure by England's fitness gurus, and as a result being declared unavailable for upcoming ODI series against Bangladesh and Australia, just as it seemed he might be finding his size 12 feet on the international stage.

When questioned as to the benefits of such a programme, Finn responded saying “it makes you more robust.” Cue jokes from England’s inexorable jester, Graeme Swann, leading to the off-spinner even holding a Twitter competition for his followers entitled ‘what is Steven Finn as robust as?’ Rather amusingly, the winner’s entry answered ‘relatively robust compared to Humpty Dumpty in a mosh pit.’

Jokes and criticism of his removal from the front line aside, however, Finn was soon to show that this was no yarn, with the discernible change in pace and accuracy wrought since undergoing the strength and conditioning regime proving nothing short of remarkable.  Accuracy, it can be argued, comes with experience and endless practice, but to have reached a point where speeds of 95mph have been recorded from his bowling fully vindicates the decision made by England’s management.

Following England’s resounding clattering of India in the late English summer of 2011, a Test series where he was overlooked in favour of Tim Bresnan, Finn might have been forgiven for wondering when his next opportunity in an England shirt would materialise. He wasn’t to wait long however; with James Anderson being rested for the subsequent ODI tour of India Finn played in all five defeats in what was a disastrous series for the tourists.

Ironically, it was that very trouncing by the world's then number one ODI side that was arguably the announcement of Finn’s true arrival on the world stage. Emphatically waving goodbye to the fast-medium mediocrity with too many a ‘four-ball’ thrown in, the reinvented Finn bowled with express pace, hostility and consistency on batsmen friendly pitches, ultimately leaving India as perhaps the one England player to emerge with their reputation enhanced.

Finn’s latest act of speed induced carnage saw Pakistan on the receiving end this afternoon, blowing away their top order and almost single-handedly reducing their run chase to mere rubble in the Abu Dhabi desert, on his way to career best ODI figures of 4-34 as England romped home to a resounding 130 run win.

A true measure of Steven Finn’s progress will ultimately be taken inside the Test arena, as and when his next call arrives. After acquiring a pronounced deal of control to compliment his new found wheels, such an opportunity should not be long in coming, and the addition of a genuinely fast bowler to the already sublime England bowling ranks will not be welcomed by their rivals, one would imagine.

English fans have heard a fair bit of noise from their Australian adversaries of late regarding their own young speedsters in Pat Cummins and James Pattinson, but based on recent performances England have a future superstar to match them all in the mighty Finn.