Graham Thorpe

Batsmen to decide England's fate

Fri Oct 02 10:29AM

England can certainly win the Champions Trophy if the batsmen deliver as they did in their opening two group matches against Sri Lanka and South Africa. That starts with Australia in the last four. 

Andrew Strauss's side have surprised everyone by progressing to the semi-finals and have clearly benefited from getting away from playing Australia for a while. But they will have to raise their game again for the semi-final with Ricky Ponting's side.

They have done well to acclimatise quickly and, while the wicket suited them against Sri Lanka, they were superb against South Africa when their batting was the difference.

Yes they have had a blip against New Zealand, but they have again proved what can happen when they back themselves in this tournament and can do so again against Australia.

I think the deciding factor for England has always been the batting and they have the bowlers to back them up if they put a score on the board.

England showed enough against Sri Lanka and hosts South Africa to prove that they can string two matches together, but it was a shame the way they performed against New Zealand. They now have to show their character once more.

The semi-finals will be very intriguing because in this format of the game all it takes is a few individual performances to clinch a victory.

England go back to Centurion for the first semi-final and that is a relief because the pitch in Johnannesburg has been very unpredictable.

It is very encouraging the way England have played, and they just have to continue with the same belief and play with freedom against Australia, as they failed to in the home series.

When Strauss's side tense up and feel the pressure that is when they play poorly, so they must play with aggression and belief to get the best out of themselves.

As I have said, Eoin Morgan has been a revelation and Andy Flower will be delighted that he has produced as his talent suggested he might.

In the modern game you really need someone to inject some fire and aggression in the middle-order, and Morgan has proved a real find for Flower and Strauss in that respect.

England have always had trouble finding batsmen to play aggressively in the middle overs of an innings, and the onus will be on Owais Shah (pictured), Paul Collingwood and Morgan to take the game to Australia.

When you have belligerent players like Luke Wright and Morgan coming in, it allows Collingwood and Bopara to play the ball around without too much pressure to take undue risks.

You can go all the way through that batting line-up and make a good case for why each player should be there, but for too long when the pressure has come they have not been able to lift their game in the shorter formats.

Having reached the semi-finals, that is already more than most people expected from England in this competition and they can be very content with their performance.

While New Zealand have played very well so far and outplayed England at the Wanderers, I know who Strauss and Flower would have rather seen progress out of the other three sides in Group B.

South Africa and Sri Lanka's exits open the tournament right up.

Having reached the semi-finals, England should now have the freedom to go out and perform to the best of their ability and finally prove to everyone that they can be consistent enough to win an international one-day competition.

I am confident that if the England batsmen perform as we all know they can, then Strauss could be receiving yet more plaudits after success against the old enemy.

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