Noisy test for England's commitment to the cause

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Flintoff finally finds consistency

On Thursday evening England put down a marker when they comprehensively outplayed Sri Lanka, one of the best one-day sides in the world, in the first match of the Triangular Series.

They highlighted how well they can play this frenetic, shortened form of the game, and set a benchmark to compare their future showings against. Bar a couple of hiccups during the batting when they twice found themselves with two new batsmen at the crease, this was a very impressive all-round England performance.

The home side's captain, Nasser Hussain, and his ally, the coach Duncan Fletcher, must have had permanent smiles yesterday, which says something, as they reflected on a game plan that was well thought out by themselves, and then wonderfully executed by the players.

It would be too easy to become carried away with Thursday's success under the lights in Nottingham, as one win is not yet the form of prospective world champions, but credit must be given to a side who won their first one-day game of cricket in England since they beat Zimbabwe in the final of this tournament in July 2000.

Andrew Flintoff rightly received the man of the match award, and most of the plaudits for the destructive way in which he played with both bat and ball, but this performance was far from a one-man show.

The crucial partnership of the game was not the 84-run Flintoff-Stewart assault, but the 95 runs Alec Stewart and Ronnie Irani put on in the middle of the innings when the game was in the balance. Without their intelligent and responsible performance Flintoff would not have been able to enter the fray with such gay abandon.

The fielding of a side signifies what sort of spirit is within the team. At the end of each game or series there are statistics showing how well or poorly a player has batted or bowled. On many occasions judgement will be based on these figures alone and a selfish individual will worry only about making sure his look good. Seldom are players judged on their fielding, so it is something they give to the team for free, hence showing how much of a commitment they are prepared to make for the sake of the team.

England's fielding was outstanding on Thursday. It was energetic and purposeful, and the three stunning catches taken by Hussain, Irani and Graham Thorpe were just reward for the effort put in by everyone.

England, who are expected to field an unchanged side, will require a performance of a similar stature at Lord's today if they are to overcome an Indian side that oozes quality. To cricket lovers the arrival on these shores of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh is as sweet as opening time at a public house was to Oliver Reed.

There cannot be a more attractive side to watch than India, even if their poor record away from home is becoming legendary. It is a mystery how a side that produces so many talented cricketers have not won a Test series outside Asia since 1986 in England, when they beat Mike Gatting's side 2-0.

However, it may be just as well for the others that India are still not firing on all cylinders, because when they eventually do make the most of their vast resources and potential, they will be very hard to live with.

One thing you can guarantee is that Lord's will be packed to the rafters and noisier than usual because of their arrival. The support Ganguly's side receives wherever they play is amazing. A full HQ will still struggle to match the atmosphere when the two sides played earlier this year in India, when a closely fought six-match series was drawn 3-3, but if the action is as good every spectator will leave feeling they have been regally entertained.

And who knows, if we have a last-over finish we may see Flintoff take his shirt off and give us a repeat performance of the topless lap of honour we witnessed in Bombay in February.

ENGLAND (probable, v India, Triangular Series, Lords, 10.45): N V Knight (Warwickshire), M E Trescothick (Somerset), N Hussain (Essex, capt), G P Thorpe (Surrey), A J Stewart (Surrey, wkt), R C Irani (Essex), P D Collingwood (Durham), A Flintoff (Lancashire), A F Giles (Warwickshire), R J Kirtley (Sussex), M J Hoggard (Yorkshire).

INDIA (from): S C Ganguly (capt), V Sehwag, R Dravid (wkt), S R Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, D Mongia, Yuvraj Singh, A B Agarkar, A Kumble, A Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan.