Anderson Still Green

Last night, of all nights, was hardly the time to be labelled cricket's David Beckham. Especially in Manchester, only the real David Beckham mattered. James Anderson's great homecoming, a night of wildly fluctuating fortunes, occurred when many people were looking elsewhere.

The match programme hailed Anderson's "incredible journey" from Burnley CC to England hero in less than a year but the only incredible journey under the Old Trafford floodlights last night was the one where the ball repeatedly flew to the boundary.

Three Anderson overs, delivered in two uncertain spells, cost 26. Imran Nazir took command against his two overs with the new ball and when Anderson was tried again in the 11th over, Mohammad Hafeez did the same.

To the ceaseless blare of horns from Pakistani supporters who made up at least half of a sell-out crowd, Pakistan's opening batsmen had their first taste of revenge on the boy-band fast bowler who had destroyed them in the World Cup in Cape Town four months earlier.

Then he had been almost unplayable, dismissing Inzaman and Yousuf Youhana in consecutive balls and drawing an excitable judgment from one commentator that he had never witnessed better outswing bowling than that produced in his four for 29.

But this time Old Trafford's floodlights were merely decorative on a bright blue evening and Anderson showed the natural fallibility of a talented 20-year-old.

Perhaps the adulation of his home crowd had stirred a few nerves. With Anderson, it is difficult to tell.

Pakistan's captain Rashid Latif, had played down Anderson's World Cup moment. He spoke of not judging a player on one performance and of casting a careful eye on his development. At least it is assumed that is what he said because his words were translated from Urdu by Pakistan's manager Haroon Rashid.

Vaughan, facing Pakistan's opening salvo, must have felt like hiding behind an ECB interpreter. Much of the vibrancy yesterday came from Pakistan, a side that performed ignobly in the World Cup but which has already been reassembled in some style. It helps that Pakistan have since played one-day series in Sharjah and Sri Lanka while England's warm-up con sisted of a dud friendly against Wales.

Imran, an "inexperienced" opening batsman with an audacious streak, was playing his 54th one-day international; Shoaib Malik's off-spin yielded a career-best return of three for 26 because 40 previous matches had brought solidity. Both have considerably more caps than Vaughan, and both are only 21.

Anderson's ears really are still wet. When he returned with Pakistan needing 66 from 14 overs, with seven wickets in tact, the outcome was very much in his hands. Lesser players would have buckled.

Instead Anderson got England closer than they had dared believe. His second ball back bowled Younis Khan and he ended Mohammad Hafeez's anchor innings in his next over. As dusk finally fell the pitch suddenly had tinges of unreliability and the light was a touch misleading. Not quite enough for an England win, but enough for a small corner of Manchester to retain its faith in cricket's Beckham.