Fifty50 Finale Brings Back Thrill of the Chase for Vaughan

For once it was Fifty50 cricket, not its upstart kid brother, that had them roaring in the stands yesterday. But for England's successful new one-day captain, Michael Vaughan, all forms of the game come the same.

After collecting the NatWest Challenge with this four-wicket win he said: "Every time we play at Lord's we seem to be sitting on the balcony watching a run chase. Test matches, one-day matches - we always seem to have an arse-nipper sitting on the edges of our seats. We had the better of the conditions but I thought we exploited them very well to have them four down for 61.

"The three pitches in this series have been very different, sub-continental at Old Trafford, a belter at The Oval and doing a bit here. But we were pretty cool today because of the way Tres [Marcus Trescothick] played. The way he batted against Shoaib Akhtar, bowling very fast, the way he held his nerve at the end was superb. He always seemed in control."

No-one could fail to sympathize with the Pakistan captain Rashid Latif when he said: "England played well but they were very lucky today."

However, away from the medals, handshakes and champagne there was room for introspection within the England camp last night. And for James Anderson this was a disappointing match.

The distance between Lord's and The Oval can be covered in 15 minutes, even though you may need a favorable tailwind and Mr Toad as your chauffeur. But for Anderson the two grounds might represent different countries.

The hat-trick hero at The Oval on Friday must be wondering whether he crossed the Rubicon rather than the Thames. Here he looked the greenhorn he still is. He was England's most expensive bowler, with 52 runs coming from his ten overs and 14 from his last when he bowled dangerously close to the death.

If he looked an emperor in south London Anderson came north wearing his new clothes. When he took the new ball yesterday, under jaundiced, thunder-bruised clouds, he bowled well enough; his first, six-over spell, yielded just 20 runs.

When he returned, though, his final four went for 32. A bright talent, a sound temperament and an apparently innate ability to know what is required were just not enough on this occasion. It didn't help when he was asked to bowl to a 7-2 field, a tactic that scared him to bowl too wide of off-stump. Essentially, though, he bowled too many length deliveries when he should have been locating the block-hole.

Darren Gough showed how it should be done, bowling an all-sorts last over even though that too went for runs. Even more important, though, Gough came running over to give his tyro colleague some wise counsel when Pakistan turned up the heat by scoring 91 runs in the final 10 overs.

Anderson could at least console himself that he was not the most frustrated fast bowler on view here yesterday. That was surely Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar, aka the Rawalpindi Express.

After a wayward appearance at The Oval he bowled brutally fast and straight throughout but had no greater fortune. He had catches dropped, legitimate lbw appeals turned down and was edged for fours until he went down on his knees and tore at his hair.

He aims to take it out on county batsmen over the next few weeks for the fast bowler once courted by Nottinghamshire and Hampshire has now signed for Durham. Their coach Martyn Moxon said yesterday: "We'll have a meeting during tomorrow night's Twenty-20 match at Derby to discuss when he will join."

"I need to prove myself to myself, the counties and everyone around England," said Shoiab. "I am very strong at the moment, still bowling at 98 miles per hour and I can serve Durham well.

"I do not need a break of two or three days. I want to get straight into it and help them into the First Division. There are 10 championship matches left and I will be doing everything I can to get them there.

"I've talked to Javed Miandad [Pakistan coach] and he told me I was better off playing championship cricket than anything else. I just want to bowl a lot and learn a lot by playing county cricket."

He might well get the chance of revenge against Trescothick, man of the match and the series. "I've scored a hundred against Pakistan here before, only to be last but one out," said the Somerset batsman. "To be there at the end, to see England through, was the most pleasing thing."