Collingwood calls for guts
England captain Paul Collingwood believes he will find out about the character of his new-look side in Saturday’s NatWest Series showdown against West Indies at Trent Bridge.
Wednesday’s 61-run defeat at a sodden Edgbaston left the campaign all square at 1-1 going into the third and final encounter.
Once again Shivnarine Chanderpaul proved the thorn in the side with an unbeaten hundred and Collingwood admitted it would take a ’magic’ ball at present to dislodge the Guyanese batsman.
They may not have to rustle one from up their sleeves, however, with Chanderpaul struggling with an ankle injury and how Collingwood’s young outfit respond to this setback, after a fine opening victory at Lord’s, could be key in their long-term development.
“We are confident,” insisted Collingwood. “We are a young side and Saturday is going to be a great experience for them.
“It is a final in effect, we will get mentally prepared for that and it will put everyone in that squad in good stead for the future.
“Experiences like that are going to make us better in the end, we are all still on a learning curve and sometimes you do need defeats to move on - hopefully we will learn a lot from it.”
Despite winning the toss in favourable bowling conditions, England could not prise out Chanderpaul - who has passed 50 in all seven innings during the Test and one-day international series - during a superbly-paced contribution of 116 not out.
It was the cornerstone of 278 for five, mushrooming as it did out of a brilliant alliance of 175 for the third wicket with Marlon Samuels (77).
“We have theories as to how we might get him out,” insisted Collingwood. “They don’t always work.
“We just need a little bit of luck sometimes as well; he has played and missed a little bit but generally I think he has been the one player in their side who has been so hard to get out.
“Hopefully come Saturday we can have that little bit of luck or a magic ball which gets him out early.”
