Cricket: Focused England stick to game plan

ANY COACH whose side has knocked over their most formidable foes and the world champions in tight contests on consecutive days has a right to suspect his strategy may be bearing fruit. David Lloyd played it deadpan.

"I still think there's more to come," he said. "I want them to be more in the face than they are, to hustle more." He must have been repeating these phrases from some limited edition volume available only to those in the occupation of preparing sportsmen for battle. It is quite obviously a private language but a rough trans- lation in this instance is that England must maintain their concentration and refuse to be distracted by any little ploys the opposition might pull.

Lloyd is making the demands of his charges in the wake of the back-to- back victories in Brisbane over first Australia and then Sri Lanka in the Carlton & United Series. His cautious response to the unlikely scenario that they would be two up after two with eight to play probably derived from the fact that he has been with England for long enough to know that if they can come from behind when it is too late, as they have done frequently, then peaking too soon should be a doddle.

But England have paraded some important qualities of stoicism and nerve this week which are invaluable if close one-dayers are to be won. It augurs well that they have done so while both bowling second and batting second. Australia were behind but never quite out of it last Sunday with Michael Bevan, the most proficient one-day batsman around, still in. Having done the hard work early England did not let it slip. If the bowling stayed accurate the fielding was tigerish.

The run out of Shane Warne by Mark Alleyne, moving sharply and gracefully to his weaker side, was a lovely example of accuracy under severe pressure. Alleyne was not only making his debut at the age of 30 but earlier in the evening had made a hash of fielding a ball, twice slipping and stumbling over as he recovered it, much to the crowd's cruel amusement. Norman Wisdom to Fred Astaire is never an easy transformation to pull off but Alleyne did it.

On the following evening Sri Lanka should have made more than 207 and England should have passed the total more easily. There was some concern that it would rain which briefly required more haste than the pursuers would have liked but at the last they retained enough of their composure. Muttiah Muralitharan almost created havoc, just running out of overs in time. But it was again to Alleyne's credit that, despite being utterly mystified, a man who looked as though he was trying to enter Fort Knox with a nail file and wondered why the lock wouldn't turn, still kept plodding patiently on. The reborn Neil Fairbrother, of course, did the rest.

It is rare for a side to win twice on successive nights at Brisbane in this series, not least because of the oppressive heat. To do so in such close matches as England did shows the side have fight left in them. Coming so soon after another Ashes series which might not have been a debacle but which was nevertheless won and lost comfortably has dismayed but not angered the Australian public, which is hardly besotted with its own team at present. Betting scandals are part of the reason, but there is also a distinct impression that they feel the players have become too big for their boots. In Australia they cut tall poppies down.

This has not prevented immense interest in the series. The Gabba has been packed on three occasions. More than 17,000 watched Queensland play England last Friday and Australia play England on Sunday, while more than 12,000 turned up to watch England against Sri Lanka. The first meeting between Sri Lanka and the hosts at Sydney was a 40,000 sell-out and nearly 80,000 are expected in Melbourne on Friday for England v Australia, part two.

Lloyd has clearly warmed to the notion of the protracted triangular series which has been rubbished in some quarters as advancing the cause of tedious cricket - although patently not on the evidence here so far. The point is, apart from skilful marketing and crowd appeal, that the best team wins in a long contest.

"It's good," said Lloyd. "I've never been part of a triangular series before unless you count last summer and that was just everybody playing each other once. Then we played Sri Lanka again in what was supposed to be a final.Here it'll be like a five-match Test series. Over the period you'll get the best side."

England's strategy for the World Cup in England in May is already in place, if not the personnel. That, Lloyd explained, was the thinking behind using as many players as they had lately. They wanted to examine different individuals for similar roles, to find first-choices and possible replacements. Their work may be nearly done.

"The old dressing room adage is go at 10 an over for the first 15 overs with the fielding restrictions, don't take any risks and don't lose any wickets," said Lloyd, conjuring up a kind of one-day Elysian field. "The other teams all want to do the same, score quickly at first, consolidate in the middle while the board ticks over, and hit at the end. But you've got to find the players to do it."

England are relaxed, a mood which always pervades a winning team, so there is still time for them to be exceedingly tetchy by next week. But the Ashes genuinely seems to have been put behind them.

"Maybe it was a fluke with the players coming from the Test side but we had a word and there hasn't been any looking backwards," Lloyd said.

Fast forward to taking on Australia in front of 80,000 at the MCG on Friday then and you cannot get much more in your face than that.