After the disastrous Test series, England must be relieved to regain the bragging rights over Pakistan, even if it is only in the 50-over game. Just as in recent contests against Australia and India, the ODI results have been a complete reversal of those in the five-day affairs, which is odd.
Anyway, it looks particularly good on Alastair Cook's CV as it was Andrew Strauss who lost the Tests while the new ODI skipper was at the helm for the winning whitewash. Not only that but he also came extremely close to becoming the first England player to strike three consecutive one-day centuries. Poor Pakistan. They finally find a way of getting Cook out only for his opening partner Kevin Pietersen to repeat the feat of blazing two hundreds in a row. That, after scraping together a mere 67 in six Test innings! Cook's aggregate of 323 in the ODI series was greater than the combined total mustered by the top three Pakistan batsmen, Misbah, Afridi and Umar Akmal.
As well as a great series for the top two batsmen, Ravi Bopara chipped in with two half-centuries, Samit Patel produced some useful all-round performances and it didn't matter that Messrs Trott and Morgan were relative failures. It was a shame that Jos Buttler finally celebrated his first ODI selection with a two-ball duck, but his time will come again. Fellow Somerset 'keeper Craig Kieswetter kept KP company for a while today, and his demotion down the order to make way for Pietersen paid dividends in the UAE.
Alastair Cook won the Man of the Series award but I reckon Steve Finn can count himself unlucky. Only in the side because of Tim Bresnan's injury, he reeled off two consecutive 4-34s, followed by a further five in the final games. He took more wickets, more cheaply and at a superior average than anyone else during the series. Since first announcing himself as a gangly beanpole a few years ago, he has been kept out of the attack by a combination of injury, England management and then the success of Broad, Anderson and Tremlett. In the past week, Finn has looked like a lean, mean young Glenn McGrath, bowling a consistent length, a deceptively brisk pace with some seam and swing, and who wouldn't want another McGrath in their team?!
Finn's resurgence gives the England selectors a welcome dilemma. Who to leave out in Sri Lanka or next summer? The way Asian wickets are playing, it will probably be a two-spinner strategy, featuring Swann and Monty. It would be hard to drop Anderson and Broad, but Tremlett is probably better on hard, bouncy pitches as in Australia. So it could be between Finn and Bresnan for the third seamer option, and the Yorkshireman is the superior batsman. All to play for, and at least there's cover should a bowler fall to injury, illness or a suspension for bad behaviour (Broad?!).
Now England have recovered their cricketing mojo they should go on to beat Sri Lanka in the Tests. With Cook and Finn fired up, they could be back to their fearsome best.
