England set for Super Eight test

11-24 September 2007

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ICC World Twenty20 Super Eights, Cape Town:
England v South Africa
Match starts at 1700 BST on Sunday

England begin their Twenty20 Super Eight campaign with a difficult match against hosts South Africa on Sunday.

It is the first of three group games in four days for Paul Collingwood's side, with other matches against New Zealand and India to follow.

The skipper hinted that his top three batsmen would not change, despite the mediocre display against Australia.

"I'm not going to start panicking now and I still believe in those guys at the top of the order," he said.

Openers Darren Maddy and Matt Prior have failed to provide England with the explosive start they have been searching for.

Sussex's Luke Wright has been entrusted with the number three slot but has scored only four runs in the first two matches.

There have been calls to promote Andrew Flintoff or Kevin Pietersen, or bring Vikram Solanki into the team, but Collingwood was protective of his top order.

"They have shown they have the ability and have proved domestically in England they can go out there and smash the ball around," he insisted.

"We're going to have to have a chat and look at the areas where we can improve, but when you back players to go out there and perform sometimes they get strength from that - they haven't come off in the first couple of games, but they have the ability."

Collingwood also played down the latest concerns over Flintoff's injured ankle, when asked if he was aware that the big Lancastrian was wincing with pain whilst bowling.

"I don't look at his face as much people watching television, but he seemed all right," the skipper said.

"We'll just have to keep assessing him and if he is too sore we'll have to review that."

South Africa rested star batsman Herschelle Gibbs for their seven-wicket win against Bangladesh in Cape Town on Saturday.

The powerful 33-year-old, who scored a superb unbeaten 90 from 55 balls to inspire victory against West Indies despite suffering a muscle injury midway through his innings, is expected to be fit - and could replace JP Duminy, who stood in for him against the Tigers and made 36.

"Herschelle was doing a bit of running today," captain Graham Smith said on Saturday evening.

"The physio will work with him tonight and the game tomorrow isn't until the evening so it looks pretty positive."

"It's an important game, it's going to be an exciting game and I expect there to be plenty of good cricket."

Unlike in the World Cup, results from previous rounds will not be carried forward, so the eight-wicket defeat by Australia will have no actual bearing - at least in terms of the tournament - and the slate is wiped clean for the remaining eight teams in the two groups.

Source: BBC Sport