Colly praises feisty England

Shivnarine Chanderpaul frustrated England once again

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Skipper Paul Collingwood defended England’s aggressive approach in the middle during the NatWest Series one-day clash with West Indies at Edgbaston.

Tempers became frayed towards the end of the West Indies innings when paceman James Anderson barged into batsman Runako Morton on the way back to his mark.

Morton angrily gesticulated his bat in the direction of the Lancashire player before umpire Brian Jerling calmed down the situation.

There were also exchanges between England batsmen - including Kevin Pietersen - and West Indies fielders, during the home side’s reply.

It had little effect on the outcome as the Windies won by 61 runs to level the series at 1-1 ahead of Saturday’s decider at Trent Bridge.

But Collingwood is happy with the attitude that has been adopted by his team since he replaced Michael Vaughan as one-day captain.

He said: “Was it feisty out there? We don’t mind that. That’s cricket. Simple as that.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t mind the boys getting stuck if they need to get stuck in. I don’t mind that at all.”

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said: “These guys have been playing cricket against each other for quite some time now. There’s nothing personal because they have been at it already.

“We were just trying to get on top of them as early as possible and they did the same thing, so it was a little bit of give and take. I hope no-one takes it too seriously.

“To be honest we are aggressive people and in cricket we need to be more determined. Once you can get on top of opponents earlier the better you tend to play.”

Collingwood was quick to praise the efforts of West Indies star batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who was promoted from five to three in the order and scored an unbeaten 116 out of their 278 for five from 50 overs.

His efforts were all the more worthy as he suffered an ankle ligament injury which prevented him from fielding and means he is battling to be fit for Trent Bridge.

Chris Gayle did not take it too seriously © Getty Images

Collingwood said: “He has been very hard to dislodge all the way through this trip to England. He seems to have liked English conditions. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit.

“He has come out today, got himself in and produced a performance that was excellent again and put a really good total on the board for the West Indies.

“We have theories as to how we might get him out. We do talk about it. 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.

“He knows his areas very well, he reads the game very well so he knows when to go and when to play himself in and he is looking very calm at the crease at the moment.

“Hopefully, come Saturday, which is a very big game for us, a final for us, we can have that little bit of luck or a magic ball which gets him out early.”

England took the surprise decision to leave out spinner Monty Panesar but Collingwood admitted it was down to finding the right balance in the side in the absence of the injured Andrew Flintoff.

He said: “We have to find the right balance. We are all still learning and experimenting and finding out what are the best players in these certain conditions and situations.

“We believe that was our best side to win the game on the day. I’ve always said Monty is going to be a big one-day player for us, certainly in the future.

“When it comes down to conditions, we assess on the day and see what the wicket is like and go from there and it was getting the balance right in the side.”