England coughed up a win hardly worthy of their status as World Twenty20 champions in Cardiff on Sunday, while Pakistan at least were offered momentary respite from the spot-fixing scandal that continues to mar their tainted tour.

One got the feeling that anything other than an utter thrashing, of which they have fetched many across the past month, would suffice for the visitors. So a tightish five-wicket defeat probably suits Waqar Younis and company just fine.

The English, however, have plenty of work to do in the nets and around the drawing board ahead of Tuesday's second Twenty20 International.

The decision to pick Ryan Sidebottom ahead of James Anderson went to pot as the southpaw seamer fetched to all corners across two expensive spells, while Tim Bresnan dropping Umar Akmal on five, Stuart Broad spilling Shahid Afridi on 10 and Luke Wright grassing the Pakistani captain a couple of deliveries later must've really riled coach Andy Flower

Ultimately it took a cool, calm, collected and unbeaten 67-run stand between go-to guy Eoin Morgan (38 not out) and sidekick Michael Yardy (35 not out) to seal first blood of the two-match series for the hosts after Craig Kieswetter (six), Ravi Bopara (11), Paul Collingwood (four) and Wright (duck) had contrived to get out to Shoaib Akhtar's fleeting fodder and Afridi's sly leg-spin. Wicketkeeper-batsman Steven Davies - Matt Prior's latest nemesis - at least managed a respectable 33.

England's victorious tally of 129 for five eventually arrived with 17 deliveries to spare, but the result could've been a lot closer had Akhtar not fumbled the dolly Morgan's ill-timed reverse-sweep offered the fielder when the score sat at a tentative 77 for five.

Earlier Pakistan stuttered their way to an iffy total. Following the initial departure of Kamran Akmal for six, Shahzaib Hasan's workmanlike 21 and Mohammad Yousuf's flurry for 26 got the tourists back on track.

The introduction of Graeme Swann, who for the umpteenth time in his career struck in his first over of the day and progressively turned it square, promptly ended the rearguard stand with two quick scalps.

Fawad Alam's 20 from 29 deliveries was hackneyed at best before Umar (35 not out) and Afridi (16 not out) rode their collective luck in carrying Pakistan to 126 for four.

All in all, England would've hoped for better on Sunday. Yes, the nature of the pitch wasn't very conducive to fruitful hitting and explosive fast bowling, but they'll need to dig a hang of a lot deeper if they want to make it seven Twenty20 International wins on the trot come Tuesday.

Shot of the Day
Cross-bat strokes were certainly the order of the day and the amount of times Umar danced to the off-side in an attempt to swipe through short fine-leg pipped double figures, but none as daft as his premeditated swirl to Sidebottom in the 19th over. On another day he would've copped it to the visor.

Delivery of the Day
Swann turned it a Country Mile from ball one, but the final delivery of the ninth over had Umar wondering how he was ever going to get anything off the square. Pitching far outside off-stump to rip across the right-hander - backing away and cutting - on the front pad, it truly was a beauty uncommon of a finger spinner.

Defining Moment of the Day
77 for five could so easily have been 77 for six and the prospect of more had Akhtar been a bit more awake when Morgan's mistimed reverse-sweep came a knocking at thirdman-cum-fine-leg. Instead, the ball went from bat, to hand, to grass in an embarrassing flash.

Jonhenry Wilson