Andrew Strauss hails contribution of Steven Davies
Davies scored 87 in 67 balls for England at Chester-le-Street
England captain Andrew Strauss hailed the contribution of opening batsman Steven Davies in the 24-run one-day international win over Pakistan.
Wicketkeeper Davies scored a superb 87 at Chester-le-Street as England posted a match-winning total of 274 for six.
"Steve Davies produced an outstanding innings, giving us momentum at the top of the order," Strauss told BBC Sport.
"It was a good game of cricket and Pakistan did well to stay in the game right until the end there."
Davies, 24, was only playing his second one-day international after making his debut in last year's Champions Trophy.
Opening the innings with skipper Strauss, the Surrey batsman demonstrated a temperament beyond his limited international experience to provide the home side with the perfect platform on which to amass an impressive total in a rain-reduced game at Chester-le-Street.
"He's a lovely timer of the ball, a sweet hitter of the ball and he's a relaxed, laid-back guy," Strauss told Test Match Special.
"He brought that into the middle today; he was very calm and picked his boundary options really well and got us off to a great start, and when you get a start like that it allows the batting order to feed off that."
After Strauss was dismissed for 41, Davies and Jonathan Trott, who made 69, combined to guide England onwards in a positive manner.
Despite the ongoing investigation into alleged spot-fixing that has blighted Pakistan's preparation for this one-day series, with players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir all charged and provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council, the tourists produced a spirited display to come within 24 runs of their target.
"Our score was very competitive on this wicket, but it was a really good wicket so we had to work hard in the field," added Strauss.
"There's a lot of confidence in our group at the moment, we've strung together quite a few one-day wins recently. The key is to not take our foot off the gas - just keep working hard and keep improving."
Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said he was pleased to see an improvement from his side after the two heavy Twenty20 defeats which preceded Friday's match.
"We missed an opportunity in the morning and we made some mistakes but we've definitely got hope for the next few games," he said.
"You could see from the way the guys played that we were 100% better than before."
The second one-day international of this five-match series is at Headingley on Sunday.
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