Congratulations to England, excellent performace!

[Sherlock]

They've been getting hit left, right and center from everyone including their own fans but, they've shown they can be a decent enough team.

Credit to Cook and Bopara but the former has been in excellent form in these two matches.

All I hope is for some fight from Pakistan and not to get their heads down if they lose the toss as mentally they think they can't chase a target.

Those fans that said it'll be easy and a whitewash is surely on the cards should hand their heads in shame as this isn't the first time they've "predicted" such idiotic views.

India won the series in India because they could actually bat, but no-one noticed England actually putting up decent totals only for India to knock them off with ease.

Pakistan is completely different and there's still places up for grabs.

I can only hope and pray for the best.

Well Done England.

On to the next one.

[Desi_Joker]

The series isn't still lost. But the mentality of the team makes me believe that it is everything but lost now...

But yes, sticking to the topic. Kudos to England for showing real character by hitting back after what had been, for them, a shocking test match series.

[duostyle]

Grats to England, Cook is pretty good.

[in_cutter]

Yep, throughly professional performance yet again.

[ShahidAfridi_rulez]

Yeh, it was.

Alastair Cook and Steven Finns in particular. Played really well!

[BMW Power]

Excellent comeback by England.

[madaboutcricket]

England has a very good bowling unit and fielding is also good. but their batting is nothing great, especially in ODIs. Morgan is in terrible form. Bopara is very average. trott is not an odi player, too much tuk tuk. They need a few young aggressive batsmen. otherwise they have a decent ODI team.

[90MPH]

Well played by them, quite surprised actually.

I think more than anything their attitude has been very good - seems they want to prove a point.

[Fireworks11]

Well done indeed. Finn's been a breath of fresh air and England have just outplayed Pakistan.

[VolcanicAsh]

Great performance but its gotta be said England are a awful ODI side, any other test playing nation other than Bangla and WI would have chased these past two scores with their eyes closed. Its more to do of how bad we are chasing than England being great. England are still awful in SC, most teams would have got to 280 to 300 batting first on this surface. Great bowling and fielding side but their batting is not up to standards.

[greekscavenger]

It's not the batting ability thats not up to standard, its the mindset,

Take Morgan and Pietersen for example. Their the number 1 and number 2 ranked T20 batsman in the world, so clearly, they can slog it about a bit.

But between the two of them this series they've done jack all.

[MVP26]

The Finn and Cook show continues.

[bmwduran]

That is excellent show after a very ppor test series,

[Geordie Ahmed]

Yep, congrats to them, they were excellent

Cook and Finn doing the business yet again

[talha3]

If we should expect England to give Pakistan credit for the test whitewash, we should obviously give credit where it's due in these two ODIs rather than just blaming our own players.

Cook has been excellent, 9.5/10. It's rare you get to see two flawless consecutive ODI centuries played with the class he has played with.
Bopara has been a revelation with the bat, facing the best spin attack in the world well, having not faced them in the tests.
Finn has been immense, bowling with accuracy, express pace and movement.
Patel has proved many wrong with useful contributions with the ball along with a crucial catch...

Which brings me on to the last point, fielding. England's fielding has been excellent. In the first match it didn't matter so much, but in each match they have added about 15-20 to their score with dives inside the circle (mainly from Morgan) as well as on the boundary. I believe this definitely made a difference in today's match.

[Sledger]

Congratulations to England and all fans on PP. Excellent bowling performance, they still need to work on their death hitting and Pietersen's form is a major worry. However, Cook really cashed in and is batting excellently in ODIs now - bowling is pretty solid but I'd personally replace Anderson with Bresnan.

[kamz]

in the last 2 ODIs cook has played amazing!!! credit to him and England

[deviously~fading~away]

Brilliant performance from England. Their bowling & fielding is top notch. The batting is much more dependable than other ODI sides. Been very impressed so far. Let's see how they play in Dubai.

[ShahidAfridi_rulez]

I have a feeling that the next 2 games are ours!

[Ruri]

Thanks for the congrats, but I still don't think England deserve much credit.

Bar Cook and Finn no one has been that good, and even Cook had a life given to him early by Umar which any wicketkeeper bar Kamran would have taken. Both Anderson wickets, two of the Finn wickets were gifted. The Farhat runout was also gifted. I'm starting to feel like Pakistan feels bad at how hopeless England were in the Tests and are going very easy on them.

[violet_may]

^
You are like the English version of nads_rocks, cricfan4ever and Savak all rolled into one.

Never short of criticism eh?

[greekscavenger]

The Farhat wicket wasn't a gift.

It was hilarious to watch though. He runs forward, it wacks him on the inside edge onto pads. He clearly knows this, looks left and right, stops and pauses for 5 seconds trying to work out whats going on, then realizes Broad's about to run him out and then desperately runs back.

[violet_may]

But congrats to England.

We will win the toss next time and then victory shall be ours! Ha!

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Even though England have taken a 2-0 series lead I don't really like the look of their batting line up. Like Pakistan it seems their bowlers are covering for a lot of weaknesses in that area. Cook apart they have been pretty poor. The real credit belongs to England's seam attack which has performed admirably as a collective in the UAE.

[Ruri]

Originally Posted by violet_may ^ You are like the English version of nads_rocks, cricfan4ever and Savak all rolled into one. Never short of criticism eh?

Nope. Honestly we could win every single game in the rest of the series, and in the T20 series by over a 100 runs each time. But this tour will amount to nothing more than a massive fail to me.

[Watsupdoc]

Congrats England, but wait till we (finally) win the toss

[amirfanforlife]

Yeah, good job England.

[sunnykhan]

Quality performance by Cook. Chasing under lights is not at all an excuse. Well Done England. Misbah please make some much needed correction in the team combination.

[Ruri]

Originally Posted by Cpt. Rishwat Even though England have taken a 2-0 series lead I don't really like the look of their batting line up. Like Pakistan it seems their bowlers are covering for a lot of weaknesses in that area. Cook apart they have been pretty poor. The real credit belongs to England's seam attack which has performed admirably as a collective in the UAE.

I very much agree with this statement. Was the same deal in the Test series with our bowlers dragging us into winning positions in both game 2 and game 3, and a salvageable situation in game 1, and our batsmen couldn't do anything. Their form is so shot....

[James]

Many thanks to Sherlock and co.

This thread has so far collected the amicable responses and graceful losers, with the other classless and bitter Pakistan fans choosing to post elsewhere.

[ash 68]

The last 2 performance show that England can play sub-continent like conditions

The bowling unit is very good, Kp is due a big one and Cook is due a failure

I expect Sri Lanka and India to get a strong challenge this year rather than whitewash as some predict

[Phool]

What a match it was! Though we lost but still was a very enjoyful. Cricket should win, that is what matters to me.
England deserved to win the way they played. Captain cook is leading his team from the front. Though yesterday he got a chance but credit to him for taking full advantage of it. Congratulations England:

[Watsupdoc]

Originally Posted by Whippy Many thanks to Sherlock and co. This thread has so far collected the amicable responses and graceful losers, with the other classless and bitter Pakistan fans choosing to post elsewhere.

Just wait till you lose the toss (and we win it)

Seriously Congrats though, the team is coming along nicely. I was really impressed by the fielding standard of the English team.

[Itachi]

Congrats to england fans but i don't think its a great performance. 250 isn't enough to beat a good odi side specially in SC. Against india, england need atleast 280 to be competitive. And the problem which i mentioned in other threads is still there. Apart KP, no one can accelerate the score. Bowling was good but batting still lacks variety. England was lucky that pakistan aren't good in chasing are creates pressure for themselves. Otherwise this performance isn't enough.

[Namak_Halaal]

All hail Cook.

Magnificent player.

[Sunny786]

They played well, have to give them credit too.

[Sufi Malang]

Good for England, they played better and deserved to be the winners in both the games. Pakistan should blame themselves for playing stupid cricket. Poor team selection and laid back approach in both the run chases resulted in those losses.

For England, Finn and Cook were the real stars! Without Cook's contribution, England would have struggled to cross 200 in both games! Pakistan need to get him out early in the next two games!

[Impala_KaifTamasha]

Amongst all the disappointment and outcry, must be remembered that England have been the better side so far.

They've bowled better and much more consistent. They've batted better and put on partnerships. And there fielding as always has been better, must have saved around twenty runs last game.

[Gulldozer]

Originally Posted by ash 68 The last 2 performance show that England can play sub-continent like conditions The bowling unit is very good, Kp is due a big one and Cook is due a failure I expect Sri Lanka and India to get a strong challenge this year rather than whitewash as some predict

He has been due for a big one for the past 3 years

[Safar55]

Well played by England so far in thius series, showing resiliance to win 2 games after the devastation of the test series.

Butr I would also like to point out here, while the likes of cook have played really well, things could have been really different if only we had a proper wicket keeper who took the easy chances to disrupt the England innings. Even cook would not have made that hundred. Congratulation to England on a good comeback so far, but I'm expecting Pakistan to fight hard in the next 2 games.