da cassino： England have never played limited-overs cricket of any form with this verve andconviction

da prosport bet： Andrew McGlashan in St Lucia13-May-2010England continue to raise the bar. It was already set pretty high afterthree consecutive Super Eight victories, but they produced a clinicaldisplay against Sri Lanka to secure a place in their first global finalsince 2004. They bowled with intelligence and skill, fielded with their nowcustomary athleticism and knocked off the runs with barely an alarm. Englandhave never played limited-overs cricket of any form with this verve andconviction.The standard reaction after each victory has been for Paul Collingwood totarget areas for improvement, but this time it’s difficult for even theharshest critic to pick holes. Tim Bresnan’s last over which contained threewides and cost 15, and Michael Lumb’s attempt at a catch which then wentfor four were about the only errors.”Let’s be honest, there aren’t too many areas we can improve on,”Collingwood said. “We just need to keep the same mentality – and that’sgoing to be the hard thing, going into a big game. But the boys keepresponding; every time we talk about it off the pitch, we analyse theopposition strengths and weaknesses and we keep executing our plans. Thebatsmen at the top of the order keep doing it at well, and we’re not goingto go too far wrong.”The tone for a Twenty20 innings is often set in the first few overs and onthat count England were always ahead of the game. Sri Lanka fell to 47 for 4in the ninth over and England replied with an opening stand of 68 in eight.Ryan Sidebottom’s inclusion in this side has sparked plenty of debate withJames Anderson left on the sidelines, but he has justified his selection atboth ends of the innings. On this occasion it was a new-ball wicket asSanath Jayasuriya edged limply to second slip to complete a wretchedtournament.The man who was playing in Twenty20 style before the game was invented hasbeen a shadow of his former self with a top score of 6 in this tournament.The end must be nigh. He began the tournament batting as low as he ever hasat No. 8, but, with Tillakaratne Dilshan struggling for form, was promotedback to opening. Sadly it looks like an occasion where an internationalcareer has been dragged out a little too long. A player likeJayasuriya shouldn’t be remembered for prodding and poking.Jayasuriya is already an MP in Sri Lanka and his appearance at this tournamentcaused some controversy. Kumar Sangakkara refused to be drawn on theopener’s future, but said the team should have been able to cover forJayasuriya’s lack of form. “Unfortunately he didn’t have a great run but tohis credit he stuck with the team through a difficult period and the teamstuck with him. He showed a lot of support and we made sure he felt wanted,unfortunately he didn’t deliver but we still had more than enough quality todo better than we did today.”England, though, have had too much pain at the hands of Jayasuriya to feelany sympathy in the middle of a crucial semi-final. Their opening stand ofLumb and Craig Kieswetter in the run chase was a bit of payback.Jayasuriya’s onslaught in the 1996 World Cup quarter-final left deep scarsand was one reason why England’s one-day game stood still for many years.They tried and failed (with the exception of Marcus Trescothick and maybeNick Knight) to find someone who could consistently replicate that type ofhitting.Even with the creation of Twenty20 players who cleared the ropes on thedomestic scene, England openers were left flapping when promoted to the internationalstage. That has lasted until this tournament when the performances of Lumb andKieswetter have given England much-needed impetus. The asking rate in thischase was never tough, but it pays not to get behind against SriLanka’s spinners and the openers ensured that didn’t happen.”Sometimes there are finishing pieces to a jigsaw. We had some very goodplayers among other players but what we needed was a spark at the top of theorder,” Collingwood said. “Maybe everyone has seen it as a gamble but wecertainly selected them on potential and we knew what they could do. Theyhave come and batted fantastically well and really helped the middle orderovercome totals.”Their overall tally of runs won’t set pulses racing but it has been theintent which is vital. The same was true when Jayasuriya formed hisera-defining partnership with Romesh Kaluwitharana. Often it wasn’t howmany, but how quickly. Sri Lanka had the mindset that it didn’t matter ifthey were 70 for 2 after eight overs, the middle order would rebuild.Translate that to Twenty20 and England are quite happy being 50 for 2 afterfive – it’s much better than 25 for 1.It can be dangerous for a batting unit to approach a small target with lessconviction than a tough chase – Lumb and Kieswetter didn’t get close tofalling into the trap. They milked Ajantha Mendis, knowing he was the mainthreat and didn’t have enough runs to play with, and went hard at everyoneelse. These are long boundaries in St Lucia; the openers hit three sixesbetween them whereas Sri Lanka had one all innings. Kevin Pietersen added twomore for good measure, finishing the match in a flourish to show he had nojetlag. But they could have won this one without him.