Cook serves another gourmet dish

Skipper Alastair Cook's second successive century put England in a strong position to go 2-0 up in the four-match One Day International series against Pakistan last night. After winning the toss, Cook elected to bat and his 102 helped England finish on 250 for four at the Zayed Cricket Stadium here. England will be wandering what might have been in the Test series such has been their resurgence in the 50 over series. Back-to-back centuries by Cook — the first by an England skipper and the ninth by an English batsmen in ODIs — coupled with his top order's confident handling of the Pakistan spinners, will have gone a long way towards erasing the bad memories of the 3-0 Test whitewash. Less than a month ago England were bowled out for 72 in the second innings of the second Test on this very ground. But with Cook leading from the front, England seem to have grabbed the initiative in the shorter version. Misbah-ul-Haq's woes lay in the fact that Saeed Ajmal, who was almost unplayable in the Tests, became the most expensive of the four spinners, with just one wicket at a cost of 54 runs, while Shahid Afridi and Abdul Rahman together got just one for 74. Mohammad Hafeez, who bowled a brilliant spell of ten overs yielding just 30 runs in the first one-dayer, came off after just four overs last night. Aggression and caution Cook's knocks, both brilliantly played, could not have come at a better time. England came here as the world's No. 1 Test team, but were so badly mauled by the Pakistani spinners that tough times were predicted with trips to Sri Lanka and India ahead. However Cook, who said before the start of the ODI series that his side would not be bogged down as Pakistan would not be able to apply the same pressure, mixed aggression with caution while he kept rotating the strike. The skipper did get a reprieve when Umar Akmal dropped him on 28 off Afridi, but other than that it was an innings from the top drawer that made the few English fans present proud. Bopara repeat While Kevin Pietersen (26) and Jonathan Trott (23) could not match Cook's focus and concentration, Eoin Morgan also ran into some form with an unbeaten 25. But it was Ravi Bopara, the man who earned his skipper's praise for his knock on Monday, who repeated that with a fine 58 off 66 balls with four boundaries. England's ascendency was reflected in the fact that they lost just four wickets yesterday and seven on Monday, in stark contrast to being bowled out in every innings of the three Tests.