Dauntless

So, with three ODI wins out of three, two against Australia, everything is right with England again. Well, hardly, but their performances in the last few matches of the Commonwealth Bank Series have emphasized the potency of the collective confidence which always stems from the making of individual centuries and the winning of matches. To beat Australia is one thing (and something which England have managed rarely enough in the one-day arena over the past decade), but to do so from 15 for 3 chasing 252 is another matter entirely. This was a team which has accrued enough resilience over a relatively short period of time to be able to take whatever Australia could throw at them and return to finish on top.

Of course, with his magnificent fielding and another dauntless hundred, Paul Collingwood was England's talisman. He's looking more and more like a player whose qualities and achievements (and, more particularly, the circumstances and manner of them) should resonate down the ages. I can only talk of the last thirty years, but I'm quite clear in my own mind that he's by far the best all-round fielder England have possessed in that time, and he must surely be one of the toughest and most self-assured players English cricket has ever produced. After what has been, the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests aside, a poor tour for him, to recapture his lost form with consecutive centuries in high-pressure situations has been a remarkable achievement, but, with hindsight, we shouldn't have expected anything less.

It's all too easy to do, but I, for one, will never doubt Colly again.