Unexpected win adds to the intrigue
So unexpected was England's six-wicket triumph over Sri Lanka at the Wanderers, that hindsight might even afford it JFK status, as in where were you when it happened
Osman Samiuddin in Johannesburg
26-Sep-2009

Minor battles were won everywhere - James Anderson with the new ball; • Getty Images
Not that supporting England has ever been a neutral's thing to do but few will quibble over the significance of England's six-wicket win over Sri Lanka at the Wanderers. Hindsight might even afford it JFK status, as in where were you when it happened, so unexpected was the triumph. But for now it has blown open Group B and that is precisely how any good tournament should be; that it is this Champions Trophy of all trophies makes it timelier still.
Minor battles were won everywhere - James Anderson with the new ball;
Stuart Broad's death overs spell; Owais Shah not getting himself or anyone
else run out despite his best efforts; Ajantha Mendis seen off, Muttiah
Muralitharan conquered; they even had someone in Eoin Morgan who resembled
something of a modern - and thus not very English - ODI batsman; Paul Collingwood even hit a cover drive for four, which should tell anyone that something out of the ordinary is on the cards.
Collingwood was at its centre without ever looking remotely like he had
been there, which is generally how he goes about it. His thrust helped set
up England's chase, an unusually fluent hand free of stiff-elbowed chips
and nudges and lit up immeasurably by a monster six over midwicket. He is
a likeable sort, with an agreeable wit and a nice line in
self-deprecation. So Mendis was thus repelled: "We watched a lot of
footage on the computers," Collingwood said. "When his three fingers are up, we thought: 'right, it's going to go away from you'. Then we got out in the middle and
it was absolutely....(laughs)."
Soon to be England's most-capped ODI player and one of the rare ones who
play all three formats, Collingwood had just come off a break enforced upon him by the
captain and coach. "You're going to put two and two together, I guess. I
don't know if it's just coincidence or what, but I feel pretty good at the
moment. The body feels good. The knee was pretty sore at Hampshire.
Straussy [Andrew Strauss] and Andy [Flower] made a strong decision there that I was to be given a good week off. Thankfully, I managed to get the body back into decent shape."
Andrew Strauss's
response, whatever the result, is likely to have been
understated and two wins in a row doesn't yet wipe out their horrors,
recent or otherwise. Still, areas will concern him, such as the briefly and
wildly schizophrenic nature of their pace attack after Anderson had given
them such a start.; Graeme Onions and Broad both went for runs, the latter
struggling to find the right length until the death overs.
"Sometimes it's hard to bowl on wickets that are doing a bit," Strauss
said. "You have to bowl pretty straight and if the ball sort of nips the
wrong way, it can go down the leg side. I think we could have been a bit
more disciplined with the ball. But we're splitting hairs there a little
bit because we started off exceptionally well and that made a big
difference in the context of the game."
But at least one of his batsmen, Morgan, stayed the course, going on to
finish a game. More often than not Strauss's batsmen have let him down.
Not so here: "Overall, I was just very happy with the intent the batsmen
showed. They took the game to the Sri Lankans. They didn't let the
spinners bowl at us. Colly and Owais Shah played very valuable innings,
and then Eoin Morgan did a great finishing job. So, a lot to be pleased
about and I think we can take a lot of confidence from it.
"If we play like that, we're a dangerous side. We're not going to be
touting ourselves as the winners of the competition at this stage but if
we can keep getting better, then we're going to be hard to beat."
This may yet prove to be nothing more than a blip on a radar of
mediocrity, and Strauss's refusal to be bullish is well-earned. But by
beating Sri Lanka, England have already had an effect on this tournament
and that is something almost no one expected them to do before tonight.
Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo