Paul Farbrace confident England can still win four-match ODI series against Pakistan

Positive: Paul Farbrace is upbeat about England's chances despite defeat in the first ODI
(Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
David Clough13 November 2015

Only victory in the second one-day international will keep England in with a chance of series success against Pakistan, but assistant coach Paul Farbrace has faith they can still achieve that.

The tourists paid for two batting collapses on the way to defeat by six wickets, with more than six overs unused, at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Wednesday.

On their return to the same venue two days later, they know already there will be no repeat of the consolation surge to a 4-0 ODI series triumph after Test defeat against these same opponents here three years ago.

Then, the unexpected success was built on brilliant batting at the top of the order by Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, who reeled off a succession of centuries in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

At their first attempt this time round, new incumbents Alex Hales and Jason Roy could muster only 10 runs between them.

They will be given chances to put that right, with Farbrace insistent England are capable of turning the four-match series round.

"We think we have the ability and the players in our team to win this series," he said.

"We're not here to develop and learn and go away and say 'well, we didn't win the series, but we're learning'.

"That's not what we want. We want to win - and it's really important we do."

Reece Topley, in just his second ODI, was virtually alone as an individual success in an opening match which saw a series of mistakes with bat and then - to a lesser degree - ball.

There were three wickets for the 21-year-old left-arm seamer and Farbarce is confident others will contribute significantly too in the remaining three matches, as long as they identify quickly where they went wrong initially.

He added: "It's about winning the game ... 'what do we have to do, did we learn quickly enough about the surface the other day, did we bowl the right way on that surface, did we play the right shots on that surface?'.

"The answer probably would be no to both.

"I think we waited a little bit too long to bowl our slower balls and cutters - and certainly some of our shots were not ones you want to be seen repeated on Friday, because if they are we'll get the same thing."

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