England in Pakistan 2012

Bopara expects a backlash from Pak team

In-form batsman Ravi Bopara on Thursday cautioned England to prevent any smugness against a threatening Pakistan team irrespective of racing into a 2-0 lead in their one-day international series.

England won the first match by 130 runs on Monday and then doubled the victory with a precious 20-run win in the second on Wednesday.

Bopara cruised half centuries in both matches and helped his captain Alastair Cook - who struck consecutive centuries - to assist England score difficult totals in both the games.

But Bopara warned Pakistan can still recover in the last two games here on Saturday and Tuesday.

"Any series where you go 2-0 up is pretty good," said the 26-year-old. "But we're keeping our feet on the ground. We know from the Test series what Pakistan are capable of. They are a very unpredictable side," said Bopara.

Pakistan won the earlier three-Test series 3-0. Bopara, part of the England team which lost 5-0 in India last year, said a triumph of this size in sub-continent conditions would be great.

"It's going to be a massive thing for us to win out here. We haven't had a good one-day record in the sub-continent so it's a big thing for us to win. It will give us confidence to know we can do it in sub-continent conditions."

Bopara cautioned against thinking of a 4-0 win. "I wouldn't want to think like that. We've done that in the past. Individually we've got a bit giddy and things just go wrong. So we're not going to look too far ahead.

"We'll just keep doing what we've been doing in the last couple of matches and worry about our skills and dealing with that Pakistan bowling line-up," said Bopara.

"It makes a massive difference once you've had that time at the crease. The good thing is Cook is in great form. Hopefully he can go into the third match and get some more runs," said Bopara.

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