Pakistan v England / Michael Vaughan / 14 February 2012 /

Michael Vaughan is full of praise for Alastair Cook after Monday's century. But the most important thing the England skipper can do on Wednesday is win the toss...

Pakistan v England, 11:00, Live on Sky Sports 1

A few conclusions to draw from the first ODI. One: Pakistan proved once again that they are the most unpredictable team in world cricket. Having looked like world-beaters during the Tests they were pretty average. A few wayward deliveries from the 'quicks', sloppy fielding and the lack of a game-plan when chasing a good total all contributing to this underperformance. Two: the toss is going to be far more important during this series than we at first thought. Conditions were very good when England were batting and the ball was doing something under the lights when Pakistan were chasing. So, in the absence of any noticeable dew, batting first is a huge advantage. Particularly as Pakistan don't really like chasing: something we did mention in the series preview.

Three: Alastair Cook proved what a capable ODI opener he is. I didn't particularly like it when certain people were saying he shouldn't be captain of the ODI team because he didn't really justify his place in the team as a batsman. For starters he's a super player, full stop. He has huge mental strength and a great fighting spirit. If Cook can't adapt his game to the limited-overs format and score big runs relatively quickly after a year or so trying then so be it, but he certainly deserved a chance to have a go at it. And so far he's done just fine.

In ODI cricket the emphasis is often on bowling straight and that allows him to clip the ball to the on-side. Bowl a little too wide outside off stump and he'll cut you through backward point, another area where he's very strong. He's also introduced the slog-sweep into his game and, whereas I don't think you'll see him hitting big sixes out of the ground just yet, he's shown he can score at a brisk pace.

As regards his captaincy, OK, a 5-0 whitewash (at the hands of India) speaks for itself and that will have been hard for Cook to swallow but they are the world champions and that was in their own backyard so I'm not sure that if someone else was in his shoes they would have fared much better. It's also worth remembering that England were on top in at least a couple of those matches and if they'd made the most of that in one of the first two games, things could have turned out very differently.

I'm often asked who are the best ODI openers I've seen since I first started playing in them. There wasn't much to choose between Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. The thing about those two was that it didn't matter whether it was the first ball they were facing or the 50th, if the ball was there to be hit, they hit it. And it often only stopped when it reached the boundary rope. That put the bowlers under pressure from the word go. It was pure fearless cricket and given Australia had those two, it's hardly a surprise they won the two World Cups when they opened together!

But the other guy (with an inevitable honourary mention of Sachin Tendulkar) I'll put in that category is Marcus Trescothick, curiously enough, another left-hander. And the other thing that all three had in common was that they didn't just score quickly for 15 overs and consider their job done. If they got in, they made sure they got a ton. Just like Cook did yesterday.

Apologies in advance for sitting on the fence somewhat but I think that whoever bats first tomorrow wins the game (Weds 10:30 update: England have won the toss and will bat).

Pakistan can't be as poor as they were yesterday and if they're defending a total, they have the variety in their bowling to keep England at bay. But England struck early yesterday with James Anderson, Stuart Broad and in particular Steve Finn very dangerous under lights so if they posted 250 plus again, I'd be pretty confident they'd be able to defend that.

I've praised Cook's knock enough in this column already but I don't think he's going to go out and top score tomorrow. That innings will have taken a lot out of him and it's tough to come out two days later and do it all again. Jonathan Trott got out first ball to a magic delivery from Shahid Afridi but he rarely fails twice and this could be his sort of pitch to go out and play one of those steady innings that are his hallmark.

3 pts Back the bat team batting first (Weds 10:30 update: England)
1 pt Back Jonathan Trott to be top England batsman @ [5.0]

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