One Day; Who Knows?

With England needing to beat Australia on Saturday to prolong their interest in (one might say distraction with, for all the respect we seem to accord the one-day game) the Champions Trophy, Duncan and Freddie must be hoping something clicks. After a dismal few years in the short form, a couple of spirited victories at the tail-end of the summer over Pakistan and a convincing pummelling of a Rajasthan XI had perhaps raised the expectation level a mite too high - although, given that we were finalists in the tournament last time out, we should probably be aiming to be there or thereabouts again.

With the classic 'bits-and-pieces' roles filled by the somewhat nuggety Collingwood, the doughty Dalrymple and deceptive Yardy, I had begun to harbour the hope that the side had achieved a degree of balance... however, then India roughed up the top order and we were effectively back to the drawing-board (although it was two of those gritty three that turned out to be top scorers, sandwiching KP in between.)

I'll have my fingers crossed against the Aussies, but won't be holding out too much hope. The drawn final of the one-day series in 2005, prior to the Ashes, was held to have had a significant bearing on the series, particularly on England's powers of self-belief, but I don't think they need such a fillip this time round. The players know they can stand toe-to-toe with Australia in the Test arena, and I don't expect a negative result in a second-rate one-day trophy's group stage to alter that. Would be nice to give them a good dusting though...