England focus turns to the future as one-day series win stops the rot
England salvaged something from their troubled winter by winning the one-day series against the West Indies. They comfortably took the final match by 26 runs after a rain-interrupted game. While this victory should not be allowed to paper over the cracks, some of which are more like gaping cavities, at least this team has shown that it has a decent amount of spirit.
The victory was inspired by England’s two ‘big beasts’, Kevin Pietersen top-scoring in the match with a run-a-ball 48, and Andrew Flintoff stealing the limelight with 5-19 including a hatrick as the West Indies were bowled out for 146. They were supported well with the bat by Ravi Bopara, the ever-reliable Paul Collingwood and the increasingly reliable (with the bat at least) Matt Prior.
England’s best course of action would be to largely forget this winter. The negatives have outweighed the positives to such a spectacular extent that to pore over the details may be counter-productive. Often in sport it is best to step away from everything when it is going badly and mark it down to experience, while going into more depth when things are actually going well to find out what you are doing right and making sure you stick to it. Teams and management regularly get these things the wrong way round but England cannot afford to this time. It would be too draining on morale.
Now attention must turn firmly towards the Ashes. The schedules for each individual player over the coming 2 months must be geared towards ensuring that they are mentally and physically peaking when Andrew Strauss and Ricky Ponting walk out for that first coin toss. Strauss claims to know 9 of the 11 players he wants to start the series. It is fair to assume that the exceptions are the number 3 spot (and many eyes will be on Michael Vaughan in the season’s early weeks, and to a lesser extent, Rob Key) and the role of third seamer to support Flintoff, Anderson and Broad.
There is plenty to play for for England’s squad members in the coming weeks and they would do well to turn over a page and not dwell too much on what has been a pretty tumultuous 2 months.
