England headed into this years Champions Trophy as one of the most un-fancied sides in the competitions history.
Along with the West Indies, who for months have been unable to field a fully strengthened side due to an ongoing contract dispute which has seen a number of high profile players refuse to turn out for the side, England were expected to be turned over in their three group games and become nothing more than spectators as the knock out stages came into full swing.
But Andy Flower’s team have barely given this grim script even a momentary glance as they beat strongly fancied Sri Lanka and then toppled hosts South Africa, victories that stunned the cricketing world.
What makes these performances even more baffling is that just days before the competition begun England had reached the climax of a seven match one-day series with their semi-final opponents Australia in which they were humbled 6-1.
And as if the odds weren’t stacked against England enough they’ve achieved this feat without unquestionably their two finest players in Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.
Now if you’re a fellow England fan forgive me for my slight patronisation of the side’s achievement, I know they are still a cricket team after all, but when you look at England’s success in previous one-day competition’s you can hardly be brimmed with confidence.
Already the side have punched above their weight, and on Friday they have the chance to reach their second Champions trophy final when they take on the old enemy Australia, who stumbled into the semi-final with a final ball victory over Pakistan.
It’s fair to say that England’s resurgence in the aforementioned circumstances is partly down to a solid togetherness in the dressing room, no team could go through the loss in form and luck that they’ve endured without the solid foundation of team spirit.
Along with that the selectors should be praised for sticking with the same players throughout the whole summer and not being forced into a knee-jerk reaction after constant defeats.
Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood are two men who are definitely benefiting from the selectors consistent selection, and the duo have been intrinsic to England’s passage into the knock-out stage proving that the ECB’s continuity is finally paying off.
But for me aside from the players contribution there’s one-man above all else that has pulled this team together, and albeit momentarily, has never allowed the side’s standards slide after their Ashes victory and that man is Flower.
It might seem to difficult to believe but the team were turning out some decent performances in the one-day series with Australia and could have seen themselves one if not two-nil up early on in the series- and this is purely down to Flower pushing the team to retain their concentration.
Flower seems to have the dressing room all as one, not like under Peter Moores or Duncan Fletcher, who as one-day coach found it difficult to create any kind of consistency in performance.
Moores clearly had only half the dressing room on his side, and after Pietersen’s comments about his ability to do his job the ECB finally seem to have found the right man.
Post match interviews suggest that he takes no prisoners when things aren’t going right and he isn’t frightened to give players a dressing down if they simply aren’t performing and it’s clearly this type of moral boosting pep talk that has inspired England to the semi-finals in South Africa.
Between them and the final however is Ricky Ponting’s Australia who dismantled England’s post Ashes party with a thumping 6-1 series win last month and the holders will rightly go into the match as favourites
England will be hoping that it’s Australia who haven’t read the script on this occasion however.
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