LONDON, June 14 – England captain Paul Collingwood calld on his team to back up their effort in knocking defending champions India out of the World Twenty20 by defeating the West Indies.
Victory by three runs in a Super Eights clash at Lord’s on Sunday saw England – beaten in the tournament opener at the ‘home of cricket’ by minnows the Netherlands – end India’s interest in the competition.
But England too will be going out before the semi-finals if they lose to the West Indies in Monday’s winner-takes-all clash at the Oval.
"I said the other day if we win four games, we’ll win the World Twenty: now it’s done to three," said Collingwood.
England thrashed the West Indies in both Test and one-day series earlier in the English season, having already played them in the Caribbean this year.
"The two teams know each other well, we’ve been playing each other for the last six months. There’s only 18 hours till we turn up again and that might work in our favour.
"Four overs doesn’t take too much out of you but we’ve got to make sure we have the same commitment. We’ve been on a rollercoaster at this tournament, we can’t afford to be complacent."
"This game (against the West Indies) is similar to the game we won against Pakistan. They are both do or die and we responded wll to the pressure before. Hopefully, pressure brings the best out of us.
Indian fans outnumbered England supporters at Lord’s and made the match almost an ‘away’ game for Collingwood’s men, so much so in fact that the hosts were booed off after they’s finished a practice session on the Nursery Ground.
"I didn’t have to fire up the team or say anything," said Collingwood. "It was strange because we were on our home ground, ‘the home of cricket’."
England, defending a modest target of 153 for seven, saw recalled pace bowler Ryan Sidebottom take two wickets and the left-armer held his nerve in the final over when, with India needing 18 runs for victory, he only conceded 15 in front of a capacity crowd.
"It was a magnificent effort," said Collingwood, "We are very good at saying how good the opposition are but we’ve got three big seamers, three big men (Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Sidebottom)."
Sidebottom, recalled in place of leg-spinner Adil Rashid, said: "I think Broady and Jimmy helped by leaving a few runs in the bank.
"We’ve worked really hard as a unit on death bowling and mixing the pace up, I’ve done it for a long time.
"Sometimes you can be the hero or villain. This is something I’ll never forget."
