The formbook said that this match would be lost more than it was won. And so it proved. England played quite well, if you ignored some threadbare back-up bowling and dreadful running between the wickets (which went unpunished). Zimbabwe, still shell-shocked after their pummelling from South Africa, played like a team that had lost its last 12 games against serious opposition. Zimbabwe became a decent one-day team by making the most of limited resources. In this match, they were a long way from doing that. They made little use of home advantage: it was the England batsmen who exploited the conditions more cannily, waiting for the ball to arrive, improvising into the gaps, and giving the Zimbabweans a taste of their own alternative medicine.

The Zims won what should have been a good toss - and tossed away the advantage by repeatedly reaching for the self-destruct button. Of their top order, only Stuart Carlisle didn't get himself out. In their pep talks, England's greenhorn bowlers will have been told that they would have to work hard for their wickets. They will now be wondering if they were misinformed. Seldom in the history of one-day cricket has such a limited attack taken so many cheap wickets on such a benign surface. Andy Flower, Carlisle and Dion Ebrahim played well, but the rest need to watch tonight's highlights, if they can bear to, and work out how on earth they managed to present Mark Ramprakash with figures of 3 for 28.

Hussain will get some flak in tomorrow's papers for being out to a reverse sweep, but he shouldn't. The conditions were made for the shot and he had already made runs with it. He played well, not flawlessly but purposefully, asserting himself from the start with a nice flick through midwicket for four, making room to drive inside-out, and never letting up. With four fifties in his last six blue-pyjama innings, he is becoming a useful one-day player in his old age.

He also handled his attack well, giving long spells to both the new new-ball bowlers, then making a flurry of changes when the introduction of Hollioake and Trescothick brought mayhem. Order was restored by Andy Flintoff, who along with Matthew Hoggard was the only bowler quick enough to get away with digging it in, and especially by Jeremy Snape, who has turned out to be a very good selection for the conditions. He took a great catch in the deep, made some good stops at midwicket, and induced madness in both the Flowers. To lose one member of a family to a demented dance-step may be regarded as a misfortune, etc etc.

As in Monday's warm-up, all four of England's new boys did well, although it's hard to say which is less likely to happen again - that James Foster will take two stumpings in an over, or that he will drop a catch as easy as that skyer from Ebrahim off Hoggard.

Hussain has achieved the win he desperately needed. But whether he has got the new culture he was talking about yesterday is less clear. As well as the dropped catches, England missed a big run-out chance (Andy Flower, hesitating over a single to Ben Hollioake at point). Marcus Trescothick, strangely preferred to Knight and Graham Thorpe at slip, had a day to forget. But after the double stumping, they never looked like losing. Zimbabwe will surely do better at the weekend.

Tim de Lisle is editor of Wisden.com.

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