England to keep faith with Mustard
PHIL Mustard looks certain to
be given an extended chance to
establish himself as Englands
pinch-hitting wicketkeeper,
despite his failure to deliver a
major innings in his short international
career.
The 25-year-old Durham
wicketkeeper broke into the
one-day side this winter after
Matt Prior broke a finger during
the ICC World Twenty20
Championships and has retained
his place for eight successive
one-day internationals.
He has looked comfortable
behind the stumps and provides
the early impetus for
England with the aggressive
strokeplay which played a key
role in securing Durhams
maiden Friends Provident Trophy
success last summer.
The one thing he has failed
to deliver is a big innings, with
his top score being the 31 he hit
in the opening game of the
five-match series against New
Zealand in Wellington.
But Mustard retains the support
of captain Paul Collingwood,
who remains confident
his county colleague is on the
verge of playing a significant
innings and forging a major
opening stand with Alastair
Cook.
I think the Colonel is one
innings away, stressed
Collingwood. Hes certainly
shown there is potential there
and we know Alastair Cook
can score hundreds. Hes done
it early on in his England career
and hes very much the
rock at the top of the order.
Phil hasnt scored a big one
for us yet, but hes an aggressive
player and thats how we
want him to go out and play.
Hes going to get low scores
along the way and he just
needs one big score for
himself.
Since the loss of
Marcus Trescothick
from Englands
one-day
side, England have
struggled to unearth
an opener capable of
exploiting the fielding
restrictions
during the early
overs in a similar
manner to
N e w
Zealands
Brendon Mc-
Cullum and
A u s t r a l i a s
Adam Gilchrist.
Mal Loye and Prior have
both attempted to fill the role
in recent times with limited
success and now Mustard,
who averages 17.88
in one-day int
e r n a t i o n a l
cricket, is
also under
pressure to
perform more
consistently.
For now Collingwood
remains loyal
to him, insisting: I
think you have to give
those sort of players a
good run.
Theyre exciting when
they come off and everyone
talks about them having a
great future and they can win
you games. But when they
dont come off you can
think theyre not doing
it. Youve got to give
them a good go and
hes got a huge potential
to do well.
While the opening partnership
may not be firing, Collingwood
is more than happy with
how the top and middle order
completed a convincing victory
in Auckland on Friday to
keep England in the series
after heavy defeats in the opening
two matches.
England now face a familiar
scenario if they are to build on
successive series wins against
India and Sri Lanka and complete
a notable hat-trick with
victory over New Zealand.
Nearly 12 months after
shrugging off a miserable campaign
in Australia to win four
successive games and complete
an unlikely Commonwealth
Bank Series triumph,
Collingwood believes the current
situation is not dissimilar.
We were going into every
game as if it was a final this
time last year, but we were a
hell of a lot lower then than we
are now, he explained.
We were really in the
depths then but we managed
to drag it around. Weve had a
couple of disappointing games
here but the way we bounced
back in the last game, there are
similarities there.
Weve got two finals here
and it would be a great turnaround
if we can do it.
ö Steve Harmison last night
flew out to join his England
colleagues in New Zealand,
raring to get back on the cricket
pitch and full of confidence
after the birth of his first son.
All is well now at home, so
I can go full of confidence and
with a spring in my step, he
said. I have three girls and
now Ive got a boy C so I think
thats it for me now.
I had a long break last year,
which disappointed me. By the
time I got to Sri Lanka I just
wanted to play. Im a professional
cricketer and I want to
play cricket C and I havent
done a lot of that over the last
year.
8:51am Tuesday 19th February 2008
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