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Collingwood praises Donald's impact

Paul Collingwood marked his first ODI victory as England captain by singling out the impact of the former South African seamer, Allan Donald, who has been employed by the ECB as a temporary bowling coach for the past month

Cricinfo staff
01-Jul-2007


England are up and running in their new one-day era © Getty Images
Paul Collingwood marked his first ODI victory as England captain by singling out the impact of the former South African seamer, Allan Donald, who has been employed by the ECB as a temporary bowling coach for the past month, and whose efforts today brought out the best in the young seam-bowling trio of James Anderson, Liam Plunkett and Stuart Broad.
"AD [Donald] is a very passionate guy and speaks his mind which is fantastic because he has got a hell of a lot of knowledge in that brain of his," said Collingwood. "He has spoken a lot to all of the bowlers and it shows when they are all going out there with aggression and hitting the bat hard and hitting the late-80s in terms of miles per hour, which is great."
Anderson, Plunkett and Broad - who have a combined age of 67 - shared seven of the ten wickets to fall as West Indies were shot out for 146 inside 40 overs. Broad, 21, was the pick with 3 for 20, but Plunkett - who had such a difficult time in the Test series - returned impressive figures of 2 for 38 in his full ten overs.
"They took that same intensity that we had shown in the Twenty20 matches into today's game and I thought it worked really well," said Collingwood. "Jimmy and Liam started off really well and then for Broady to come on and keep that same intensity and pressure on the batsmen was great for such a young guy. There is not a lot of experience from Plunkett and Broad but today they were magnificent."
Donald's initial contract with England lasts for just five weeks, but Collingwood stressed that the trial period had been a success. "Will Donald continue with England? He has been fantastic. Since he has been here he has given a lot of knowledge and experience to the bowlers. It's not my decision whether he stays or goes but he has given us a lot of help which is great for all the bowlers."
England are only one match into a new regime, but Collingwood was keen that the intensity shown in his first match in charge is carried forward into future engagements. "Hopefully we can create that winning culture. When you have got fresh faces in the side, there is a fresh feel and over the last week-and-a-half there have been excellent efforts put in by everybody.
"It's not just about going into the nets and trying hard. It's been the talk off the field as well and getting strategies in place, putting plans together and going out there and using them. Hopefully we can move forward as a team and get those wins under our belt. That creates confidence and belief and that's what you need when playing one-day cricket."
Chris Gayle, West Indies' captain, was disappointed after squandering a golden opportunity for victory, and hinted that Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who was once again the pick of the batsmen with 53 not out, would bat higher in the order in future engagements. "We put him at No. 5 because we need a left-hander in the middle for combating Monty Panesar," he explained. "But I will talk to the coach about it and we will see what happens.Maybe we can utilise him for more overs.
"We fancied our chances of getting that target," added Gayle. "We bowled well to restrict them to 225 and I had all the confidence we would get the target but unfortunately it didn't happen. We have to go back to the drawing board and put things in place. England bowled well but having said that most of our batters didn't get started. These things happen."