Mercurial England chase stability

When you are finally done with the league stages of this tournament, when you are getting yourselves ready for the real exciting parts of the World Cup, please take time to send a note of gratitude to England. For it's England who have made the league stages so eminently watchable, and it's no wonder that the dead and predictable group is the one that doesn't have the services of England.

So far there have been about four headlines about the World Cup coming alive, and those have all followed matches involving England. England were there when Oranje became popular in the city of oranges. They were there when India mentioned Guinness more often in one day than it has done collectively before. They brought the worst out of India's bowling attack, and for one Zaheer Khan over their best too. They were also there when the balance between the bat and ball was restored in Chennai.

England have been pure entertainment so far, having regained the kind of form from the last two years that had them somehow drawing Test matches with batting stalwarts such as Monty Panesar and Graham Onions hanging in for dear life. Give them Netherlands, they concede 292 and work hard to get there. Give them India, they have a chase of 339 all sorted out before messing it up before their tail hits three crazy sixes to tie the thing. Give them Ireland, their bowlers fail to defend 327 after having the opposition at 111 for 5. Give them South Africa, the same bowlers come back remarkably to defend 171 from 120 for 3. Pinch yourself, because England haven't often evoked the next four words with their one-day cricket: never a dull moment.

It takes some team to adapt themselves so well to the opposition that they end up within inches of both Ireland and South Africa, both Netherlands and India. Nor have England been one-dimensional. They have played the dirty kind of close games where the pitches are so flat the bowlers might feel like slitting their wrists. They have played the actual game of the tournament too, where on a turning beauty in Chennai, every run had to be worked hard for. However, the bowler that played a big part in that win in Chennai, Stuart Broad, is not quite appreciative of the value England have brought to the tournament. He says they have had more close games than they would have liked before conceding that it might prove to be an advantage in terms of having experienced tight situations.

"It's happened to us in this World Cup probably a bit more than we'd like, but it's all good experience in the group stages as long as you get through the group stage because when it gets to the quarter-finals, it's obviously knockout, and you want to come out on top when it comes to those pressure situations."

Broad wants his team to get both its wings working at the same time. "After the disappointing performance against Ireland, we came back very strongly against South Africa with the ball," Broad said. "It's important we click with both bat and ball in this game. Our aim is to get a bit of a run going, to get a bit of momentum in this World Cup, and that starts on Friday. We know Bangladesh are going to come out hard against us, after their disappointing result against the West Indies. They're always a difficult side to beat on their home turf. I am sure the atmosphere will be fantastic. Every player is looking forward to the game. We need to make sure we put in a strong performance with both bat and ball in the same game."

It all sounds very good to have everybody perform, to create momentum and all the rest, but it is also a bit banal. Just imagine if England had been doing whatever Broad said, we still would have been waiting for the first headline about World Cup coming alive. Whatever Broad says, don't change, England. This tournament still needs more thrills.