Andrew Strauss revels in England’s ODI revival
English captain, Andrew Strauss, is a content man these days as he shapes up a team that is set to be a real threat in next year’s cricket world cup to be played in the Indian sub-continent.
After leading his team to a nail biting win in the second ODI against Pakistan at Headingly with a superb hundred, the southpaw believes that he has done enough to silence his critics and now the only worrisome thing on his mind is to prepare a team that unlike English teams of recent past can prove to be a real threat at the prestigious fifty over tournament that the masters of the game are yet to win in nine attempts.
England have hosted four of these events and made it to the final three times but yet have failed to win even once. However, the current English team has something that makes them different; they have great determination and are oozing with talent in batting and bowling departments. Coupled with that is their unflinching resilience that was showcased in their win at Headingly when they overhauled a stiff total set by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 with a professional batting effort led from the front by Strauss.
Strauss scored 126 runs while adding 146 to England’s total along with Jonathan Trott for the second wicket partnership. At a later press conference, Strauss seemed to be an elated and satisfied man. "All I can do is do my talking with the bat and help England win cricket matches. Other people can talk as much as they like, it's pretty irrelevant to me. I've worked very hard on trying to expand my game and it's important that I lead by example. I've been in good form all summer and that helps because things tend to come a bit more naturally. I'm very happy with my game and even happier that we are continuing to win", he said.
Strauss added that the current series was proving to be an ideal preparation for the tougher future challenges. Meanwhile, there seems to be some controversy attached to the mode of his dismissal at Leeds as he was trapped lbw by Pakistani off spinner, Saeed Ajmal but the well set Strauss stood his ground for some time even after umpire Billy Doctrove raised his finger. He later explained, "I wasn't sure if the ball had hit my glove"."Nothing has changed in cricket, the umpires are there to make a decision and they did that."
The recent run of good form for England also includes a morale boosting 3-2 win over their arch rivals http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in February-March.
For Strauss, the only worry is to stay consistent and form a team of 14 that will cover all bases, but it shouldn’t be much of an issue as he has the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell sitting on the sidelines for the ongoing contest.
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