Bell's bright note in England flop

14 April 2012

England ventured across the Severn Bridge to their new international venue yesterday but found some old problems in their quest to end a dismal one-day sequence.

Ian Bell's 88 apart, there was a flimsiness to their batting at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens that was exposed by a full-strength Pakistan attack which restricted them to 202 all out as three balls went unused at the end.

England, who had been put in after losing the toss, were spared the likelihood of another defeat by the autumnal rain in the Principality, which forced the match to be abandoned in a draw shortly after 9.30.

Pakistan's reply began briskly after a delay of an hour and three quarters which left them with a recalculated target of 159 to win from 32 overs.

England were having to cope with a greasy surface and were somewhat unfortunate to have Shoaib Malik as their sole early victim.

The opener got confused about whether to play forward or back to Stuart Broad and was trapped lbw to leave them on 12 for one.

The rain returned when, with Mohamed Hafeez going well on 18, the teams left the field, Pakistan having moved on to 46 for one off seven overs.

If this was a small examination for England on their road to next year's World Cup then it was a major experience for Sophia Gardens on its learning curve ahead of the Ashes Test that has been secured for 2009.

And if the national side look like needing every day available to get ready for the Caribbean then the same can be said for Glamorgan's ground with a view to the next visit of Australia.

It looked like the poor relation to the Millennium Stadium and the scheduled transformation will have to be as spectacular as promised if it is going to be fit for purpose in just less than three years' time.

Were it not for Bell's 117-ball knock, England's first visit here for

a full-scale one-day international might have proved embarrassingly brief.

Again too many wickets were lost early on and, after the Warwickshire batsman's assured effort had restored order, there was an abrupt collapse stemmed at the last by the odd couple of Darren Gough and Stuart Broad.

Bell is not going to terrify too many top attacks in the shorter form of the game, but although he is no great improviser he can fall back on the class that has become more and more apparent in the Test arena.

England had cause to be thankful that he was dropped in the slips by Younis Khan on nine, which

allowed him the time to seize on anything driveable through the covers with superb timing.

Even with Pakistan's bowling bolstered by Shoaib Akhtar and Rana Naved Ul-hasan he still cannot stop scoring runs against this team. Having made three hundreds against the tourists in the Test series he looked destined to add a first century in a one-day international.

That was before he drove sweetly to Shahid Afridi on the on side and went for an ill-judged single that saw him out to a direct hit.

The very next ball Akhtar ended another workmanlike innings from Jamie Dalrymple which had helped take England from 51-3 to 166-4 with nine overs left for a late

onslaught. Suddenly the home team were on the slide and on their way to losing five wickets for eight runs. The recalled Rikki Clarke and Chris Read, both playing their first one-day internationals since 2004, were powerless and Sajid Mahmood clearly did not fancy Akhtar and hit reverse gear towards square leg.

The mesmeric Shoaib is working his way back towards full pace and Mohamed Asif again showed what might have been in the Tests by removing the top three.

At least the Welsh crowd, jammed into acres of temporary seats, got to see more cricket than the weather forecast had suggested.

The traffic jams caused by limited

access and snaking queues for the portaloos was further proof of how difficult it is to cater for these games at non-established Test venues.

As was seen at Southampton with its continued access problems, and the inadequate facilities at Bristol, there has to be more to staging England games than the mere guarantee of a fat payment to the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Glamorgan, supported by the public purse, are allocating £9million to develop Sophia Gardens between now and August 2009 and they are going to have to spend it quickly and effectively if they want to add to the area's reputation for hosting top sporting events.

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