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According to Alec Stewart, England's major objective in Sharjah is attempting to win a triangular cricket tournament rather than honing their one-day game in preparation for the World Cup, which is perhaps just as well. On yesterday's evidence, England are not quite ready for the Abbot Ale National Village Knockout, never mind the World Cup.

In fairness, England did not have too much going for them in this match. Not only were they up against a Pakistan side who are playing the best one-day cricket of any international team, but a squad hand-picked for English conditions were also obliged to operate on a bleached shirt-front of a pitch, and in temperatures that would barely have persuaded a lizard to leave its rock without reaching for the sun block.

Stewart has lost 12 of his last 17 international tosses, and this was one of the more crucial ones. Despite the fact that the start of this day-nighter was delayed for an hour to allow the stadium to cool down a bit, it merely meant that England were condemned to take the field in a balmy 95 degrees rather than 100.

In all the circumstances, Pakistan's 323 for five was not quite the debacle it might appear, even though England had never before conceded as many runs in a one-day international. This was only the fourth time they had leaked more than 300, and it is a measure of their form that three of those occasions have occurred in the past 12 months. This defeat (by 90 runs) was also England's seventh in their last eight one-dayers.

More surprising than the result was the size of the crowd, which numbered barely more than a couple of hundred at the start of play, and climbed to no more than 2,000 by the end of the night. Sharjah is the one-day international centre of the universe (this was its 142nd match) and it is just possible that the scale of gluttony has finally burst the punters' braces.

Ijaz Ahmed has now played 42 of his 222 one-day internationals on this ground, and yesterday's 137 off 130 balls was a ruthless performance from a highly experienced cricketer. Andrew Flintoff, by contrast, was making his debut, and quite why Stewart had him bowling at the death was not readily apparent.

If the last two balls of the Pakistan innings had yielded one run, England would have remained within their previous worst bowling performance (313 for six against the West Indies in 1994) but as it happened, Moin Khan hoicked both of them for six, and Flintoff's last three overs went for 37 runs.

However, Pakistan's batsmen did not especially single out Flintoff, as everyone suffered during Ijaz's 145-run liaison for the third wicket with Inzamam-ul-Haq. Flintoff did, however, stand out as an ordinary fielder which, in this particular England side, is no mean achievement. Pakistan managed to win the 1992 World Cup with a fielding side apparently selected from Madame Tussaud's - but they were outstanding in both the other departments.

England were no better than passable in the field yesterday, although allowances can be made for the debilitating conditions. Even in the cooler night-time air, Pakistan's fielders spent a lot of time waving their arms at the dressing room - which, in spite of the bribery and betting investigations still going on at home, were requests for water rather than bookmakers' tic-tac.

If Pakistan had failed to defend a total of 323, there might have been further paperwork for the High Court judge back in Lahore, and when the seriously rapid Shoaib Akhtar dismissed both Stewart and Nick Knight with the new ball, there was little chance of England making a match of it.

After sliding to 91 for four, the only glimmer came from Graeme Hick and Flintoff, with a fifth-wicket partnership of 94 in 17 overs. Flintoff's bulk may not do much for his fielding, but he gives the ball a rare old wallop, and he hit four sixes in his run-a-ball half-century. However, the asking rate dictated a continuing policy of hit out or get out, and when both were caught in the outfield in the space of four balls, England came relatively quietly.