Cook strikes againA Cook hundred. A Bopara fifty. Finn taking four for 34. You could be forgiven for thinking you'd seen this one before.
But England's second successive one-day international victory over Pakistan was a different success from the first.
On Monday Pakistan were caught napping. Today they knew the challenge the tourists posed, fought more keenly — and still lost.
Having gone into the series on a five-game winning streak, and steamrolled England 3-0 in the Tests, Misbah-ul-Haq's men might be a little bemused as they make the trip north to Dubai, knowing they must win both games to deny England the spoils.
But Alastair Cook, who didn't carry much form into the limited-overs stuff after a difficult Test series, has given his team some much-needed momentum.
Where Cook has impressed most in 50-over cricket so far is in the way he has worked out a gameplan.
His Test technique does not make him look like a natural fit for the shorter form. But he plays within his scoring areas — mainly square on either side of the wicket, has developed a useful release shot in the big slog-sweep, and has found a way to rotate the strike and prevent himself from getting bogged down.
That proved invaluable today, when the pitch did not invite gung-ho strokeplay and runs had to be accumulated rather than smashed.
Cook ran 42 in singles, 14 in twos and 6 in threes to keep England ticking along throughout the innings, and his team-mates backed him up with excellent running of their own.
Ravi Bopara's half-century was considerably more fluent than his previous effort, demonstrating the effect having a few runs under your belt can provide. Eoin Morgan was in the middle of finding that out first-hand, turning a desperate start into an unbeaten 25 from 29 balls, only probably wishing he had had more time to rediscover some form before the 50 overs ran out.
After the first game, Cowers speculated that the batting could have got ugly if Cook failed with the bat. After this game those doubts still fester — but Cook's knock meant the rest didn't have to do it all by themselves.
The knives were out for Morgan at one stage — England added only 58 runs from their final 10 overs, and with wickets in hand the suggestion was they had not built on the platform they had laid.
But the fact that no batsman who reached double figures had a strike rate of over 100 told its own story. Strangling the runs and forcing players to take on big shots was the order of the day, and England worked that out early and showed resolve to see the job through.
Another prediction Cowers made on Monday was that if Finn turns in more performances like he did in taking four for 34 in the first ODI, he will make it nigh-on impossible to leave him out of the Test line-up for much longer.
Taking four for 34 again today was somewhat poetic, then, even if he collected his wickets in different circumstances.
His first spell was fast and straight once more, but the 22-year-old was treated by the Pakistani openers with the reverence normally reserved for the likes of the legendary Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis — survive, and score the runs elsewhere. His first five overs yielded just six runs.
When he came on later, the Pakistanis had to take risks, and Finn got the rewards his line and length had merited.
He was well supported by the rest of the team, with England's bowlers and fielders alike setting high standards.
Stuart Broad set the tone with his run-out of Imran Farhat — Samit Patel followed it with a great catch to remove Umar Akmal — and then Craig Kieswetter trumped them both with a running, diving catch that accounted for Misbah, the final man capable of taking Pakistan to victory.
It capped a good day for captain Cook. His bowlers did most of the work for him in the first game, but today he had to rotate his attack and find a way to keep in the contest whenever it looked like Pakistan were getting on top of England - which was more than once in a highly enjoyable encounter. Some of his decisions did not pay off — giving Patel his final over with Shahid Afridi on strike — or having Broad send down a series of short balls that cost three wides — but there was ambition and a will to experiment behind his actions. For a man who has been accused of lacking boldness, this was a good sign that - like his batting - Cook is beginning to work out what being a captain is all about.
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STAT OF THE DAY: Cooky, you lucky tosser — out of 20 coin tosses as captain, Cook has won 17. Eighty-five per cent success on a 50/50 call? Napoleon would have made him a general.
TWEET OF THE DAY: "My efforts to get 'colourblind' by Darius as our team song are still meeting a wall of negativity." — It's not all success for Graeme Swann today — he also went wicketless.
USER COMMENT OF THE DAY: "UH OH... We DID NOT want that wicket to fall... :o(" — DAN is the only person who's not somewhat relieved to see Abdur Rehman's tortured innings of 1 from 12 balls come to an end… including the batsman himself, most likely.
COMING UP: England have two chances to tie up the series. The first of those comes on Saturday in Dubai, with an 11:00 GMT start. We'll have live text commentary all day - be there, or be fielding at deep backward square.
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