Anticipation grows for England v Australia World Twenty20 final.
Paul Collingwood might be remaining circumspect about the possibility of a World Twenty20 final between England and Australia, but anticipation is growing that these two old rivals will contest the decider in the Caribbean.
“I think everybody on the outside would want to see an England-Australia game,” the England skipper said after his side booked a place in the final with a seven-wicket victory over Australia. "But you’ve got to be careful. Pakistan [Australia’s semi-final opponents] are still a very dangerous side."
While Collingwood is, rightly, not treating the match-up as a fait accompli, he did capture the feeling of fans from both countries when he stated, “It’s going to be a proper head-to-head, that one on Sunday, if we were to play Australia.”
As the markets have England as World Twenty20 favourites – at least until today’s semi-final decides who their opponent will be on Sunday – anticipation is building that a rivalry that traditionally reaches fever pitch about every couple of years during the Ashes, will take centre stage in the final of the current tournament.
The real battle is set to take place when the teams don their whites in Australia during 2010/11 and the Aussies seek to regain the tiny urn that England won back on their home turf last summer.
But if the final between the two sides does come to fruition, there will be no love lost in the three hours it takes to decide the winner. Sure, Test captains Andrew Strauss and Ricky Ponting will be watching the action from their respective corners of the globe, but Collingwood and Michael Clarke will each be desperate to snatch both the trophy and bragging rights ahead of what is set to be a hotly contested Ashes series later this year.
With a semi-final against Pakistan still to be decided, Clarke too is trying to keep a lid on the anticipation of a potential final match-up that must have the Australian squad champing at the bit.
"I'd look forward to that [a final against England], yeah. If we beat Pakistan and meet England in the final, it would be a good start to what is going to be a very good and interesting summer back in Australia as with the Ashes," Clarke said.
"For me, right now I've got both eyes on Pakistan and I'll worry about everything else after that."
Fans though can afford the luxury of getting ahead of themselves just a little. For those who share their allegiances with the Barmy Army, it’s a tournament that has both exceeded expectations and raised hopes further that England has left their days of mediocrity behind them. A first ICC tournament title would provide confirmation of that fact.
For those fans in the green and gold, reaching and winning the final would erase any doubts that Australia had arrived as a Twenty20 force after the world’s best One-Day International side were slow to embrace the shortest form of the game.
For all, victory against the old arch enemy would make the title of World Twenty20 champions just that much sweeter.
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