Skipper Nasser Hussain remained cautious after England ended their 11-match one-day famine with a five-wicket win over Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club.

Ben Hollioake and Andrew Flintoff saw the tourists home with a sixth-wicket partnership of 23, after Hussain himself made 73, the top score of the match. Nick Knight scored 50, and Flintoff smashed the winning runs with a four in the 47th over.

Although Hussain was delighted with the victory, he was quick to put it into context. "To come here with a young and inexperienced side and go 1-0 up in the series and to keep Zimbabwe's score down was important," he told Sky Sports.

"Learning to win comes from important parts of the game. The way we batted in the first 15 overs was important. But we are not going to go from mid-table mediocrity to world champions in one go."

Hussain also had some encouragement for the players who didn't make the opening game of the series. "We will try and get ahead in the series and everyone in that dressing room deserves a go," he said.

Gloucestershire bowler Jeremy Snape won the man-of-the-match award after taking the important wickets of brothers Andrew and Grant Flower on his debut.

"I'm still a bit shocked," he admitted. "They're both great players and I've had a good day today."

Zimbabwe captain Guy Whittall can only hope for better things in the second game on Saturday after his team's eighth consecutive one-day defeat.

"We got ourselves into a really good position this morning, then we threw it away, he said. "They took advantage of that and managed to hold us to 200. They played very well."

But England's late loss of wickets gave Whittall some belated hope. "I thought England were going to self destruct there at the end," he said.

© CricInfo Ltd.