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When England captain Marcus Trescothick reaped high praise for his young pace attack who won them by six-runs the fifth one-dayer against Pakistan, he had every right to do so actually. No one could fault him there. No one could fault him if he savoured the victory very much after they had lost ODI the series to Pakistan, after they had lost the Test series to the hosts. Young Anderson took 4-48 and youngest Plunkett, 19 or 20 years of age was cool as the proverbial iceberg at the death which in fact gave them the match.
In the end all Pakistan could score in the 50 overs was 200-9. Perhaps they didn't want to be all out.
Earlier, England had made 206-9. Pakistan was playing without Shoaib Akhtar and Inzamam so if you wanted to make trouble you could always say if they played England would not have crossed hundred. On the other hand you could also say Pakistan would have reached the truncated (assumed) target inside 25 overs.
However, many were pointing to the more ominous direction-this was an inconsequential match, best for 'fixing'. They say England would have really wanted to win this one and all they needed was a little help through careless batting (Malik, Afridi and Razzak didn't reach double figures). But then you don't need a conspiracy theory to explain the mercurial Pakistanis.
Trescothick praised spinner Ian Blackwell as well. Blackwell had taken three Pakistani wickets. However, Blackwell, who is an all-rounder, didn't impress much with the bat and is itching to demonstrate his prowess against the Indians when England visit the subcontinent soon with the hope the hosts are less intransigent.
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