The smile was tinged
with relief. Paul Collingwood, England's captain,
knew his team had managed one of the great
comebacks last night to follow one of the great
cock-ups but then he knew that is precisely what
they had to do.
"I wish I knew the reason," trying hard to contain
his understandable joy. "I am still convinced that
Friday night was meant to happen. I wish I could
put a finger on it but we knew what we had to do
and we went and did it. It was do or die for us
and we delivered."
Collingwood himself
was under as much pressure as his team but he did
not allow that to affect his determination to
ensure that players went out and, in the modern
jargon, expressed themselves. Needing to win they
were not about to go down wondering where it had
gone wrong.
Collingwood himself was under as
much pressure as his team but he did not allow
that to affect his determination to ensure that
players went out and, in the modern jargon,
expressed themselves. Needing to win they were not
about to go down wondering where it had gone
wrong.
"There were 11 men who played for their pride out
there," he said. "They all came through, they
showed they could take the pressure."
He had some special words of praise for the man of the
match, Luke Wright, who insisted on taking the attack
to Pakistan after the early loss of the man in form,
Ravi Bopara. "He's got to have a special mention
because he had to be brave after Ravi went and he had
the balls to keep going all the way. Wright made only
34 but it came off 16 balls and England felt as though
they were on their way.
"I'm loving the captaincy now but I wasn't loving it
on Friday night believe me," said Collingwood. "I know
I've got 11 good men in the dressing room who have
backed me up. They wanted to go out there and show
what they could do and they did that. They showed
their character and it shows we have real men in the
dressing room."
If it was hardly Churchillian everybody knew what he
meant. England had come into the match against a
multi-talented side and played them at their own game.
"There was a lot of clear thinking tonight."
