England openers must defy pace

Michael Vaughan's honeymoon period as England captain could come to an abrupt end today should his young and inexperienced side fail to come to terms with the fastest opening pair of bowlers in the world. Following England's narrow defeat to Pakistan on Tuesday, Vaughan finds himself in a must-win situation at The Oval.

If England lose, Pakistan will walk away as winners of the three-match NatWest Challenge and make Sunday's final game at Lord's nothing more than a glorified practice session.

Leading Pakistan's attempts to ensure this is the case will be Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Sami, two bowlers who consistently bowl at 95mph plus. Shoaib's exploits with the ball are well documented. The legality of the 27-year-old's bowling action is constantly being analysed but such pressures failed to stop the "Rawalpindi Express" becoming the first bowler to officially break the 100 mph barrier at the World Cup earlier this year.

Since then Shoaib has been in further trouble but this time it was for being caught tampering with a cricket ball. For this the pace man received a two-match ban which he completed during Pakistan's first match against England.

Mohammed meanwhile has no such controversy surrounding him. The 22-year-old has just started his international career but he has already made a huge impression. The pair may not yet have the control and quality of Australia's Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie but there is nothing that gets a batsman's heart racing more than the prospect of facing genuine pace.

One of England's batsmen faced with the task of neutralising this duo is Vikram Solanki. "It's exciting isn't it?" said the Worcestershire batsman, contemplating the challenge that lies ahead. "Playing against world-class cricketers like this is great, they bring nothing but excitement to the game."

All batsmen say they look forward to playing against bowlers of this pace. They have to. To think otherwise would be akin to walking out into the middle beaten before a ball is bowled. However nobody really enjoys the thought of someone firing a dangerous object down at you at such speeds. It is just that some players cope with it better than others.

"You prepare the best you can, mentally more than technically," Solanki said. "Hopefully all the work has been done before you get out there. It's a case of making sure you are right mentally. I'd like to think it's a case of the faster they bowl, the faster it goes off the bat."

The occasion will be made even more intimidating by the presence of a large Pakistan contingent in another full house of 18,500. They will roar the pair in and Solanki and Marcus Trescothick, his opening partner, may not feel totally at home in south London this afternoon.

This is something Solanki is aware of. "I've played against Allan Donald, Nantie Haywood, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib before but there is more to it than someone bowling rather quick at you. There are added pressures that you need to get around. I can't tell if someone is bowling 5mph quicker. It may be good for the crowd but I don't tend to look at the speedo."

That The Oval pitch has a reputation of being fast and bouncy did not appear to concern Vaughan. "It is certainly a challenge," the England captain said. "They'll definitely be a fast partnership but in Cape Town [during the World Cup] Shoaib Akhtar went for a few runs and so did Sami the other night. After the way we have played them we can go into the game full of confidence."

ENGLAND (from): *M P Vaughan (Yorkshire), M E Trescothick (Somerset), V S Solanki (Worcestershire), J O Troughton (Warwickshire), A Flintoff (Lancashire), A McGrath (Yorkshire), R Clarke (Surrey), ÝC M W Read (Nottinghamshire), A F Giles (Warwickshire), D Gough (Yorkshire), J M Anderson (Lancashire), Kabir Ali (Worcestershire), S J Harmison (Durham), R W T Key (Kent), R J Kirtley (Sussex).

Pakistan (from): Rashid Latif (captain, wicketkeeper), Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Nazir, Yasir Hameed, Yousuf Youhana, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Azhar Mahmood, Abdul Razzaq, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul, Bilal Asad, Shabbir Ahmed, Danish Kaneria, Misbah-ul-Haq.

Umpires: DB Hair, NA Mallender.