Ravi Bopara and Steven Finn turn tide to stop tour sliding into a complete disaster

The victory by 130 runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium effectively saved this tour from sliding into a complete disaster. If England can contrive another win tomorrow they will have defied an entire lexicon of punditry.

They arrived in the UAE as favourites for the Test series, which they proceeded to lose 3-0. This served merely to extend their odds for the one-day series which were already long enough to reflect a side deeply uncomfortable about playing sub-continental opposition out of their English comfort zone.

When England lost two wickets in successive balls with their innings still in its formative stages, Alastair Cook, their captain at the non-striker's end, feared the worst. Ravi Bopara, his Essex team-mate elevated to the number four position, was walking out for his first innings of the trip.

"I thought the way Ravi played, and how he handled that pressure, was a real key moment," Cook said.

"If we had lost another couple of wickets it was here we go again."

Instead, the pair put on 131 for the third wicket, ensuring they rotated the strike. Cook made his third and highest ODI hundred - 137 from 142 balls - and Bopara his seventh half-century. If England's total of 260 for seven was lower than originally expected when they were at the crease, it was to be more than enough.

Steve Finn, another player who was deprived of action in the Test series, took four wickets bowling at extreme pace. His advance to maturity in the past six months starting with Middlesex towards the end of last season, has been a thing of wonder.

Finn is rapid, accurate and thoroughly menacing. Two of his victims were beaten for pace, which on the sort of tracks to be found in Asia is the equivalent of flogging a dead horse and persuading it to gallop.

There is abundant hype surrounding the next generation of Australian fast bowlers at present.

But Finn, pound for pound, ball for ball, is probably the quickest around. Sooner or later, and probably sooner despite the depth of their bowling resources, England have to find room for him in their Test team again.

"It was outstanding bowling," Cook said. "It shows the strength of our bowling that he can't get into our Test team - at the moment. But if you keep pushing and producing performances like that . . . it's all you can do."

Cook was as much relieved as he was jubilant. Not only had England lost all three Test matches to Pakistan but the one-day side had been hammered 5-0 by India last October. Things could not go on like that if a captain is to survive, and he knew
it.

If the toss was important to England's wellbeing, almost as many matches have been won by the side batting second in Abu Dhabi as the side batting first. Cook won four of the five tosses in India and little good it did him.

Although there will be no changes in the side tomorrow, with Jos Buttler still unavilable with a cut in the webbing of his left hand, not all of England's plans are bearing fruit.

Despite Cook's unsung brilliance as a reinvented opening batsman - his scoring rate since assuming the captaincy is in the mid-nineties - the rest of the order remains a work in progress at best.
Kevin Pietersen looked out of sorts as opener and it is an experiment that needs to work quickly.

Craig Kieswetter floundered in the middle order, struggling to rotate the strike against spin, which accounted for all seven wickets.

All these failings were easily concealed in victory. Disguise them again tomorrow and they can be addressed in peace.