Cricket: Flower's men still to bloom

England must beat India, the defending champions, at Lord's to maintain their semifinals ambition and ensure Monday's match against the West Indies is not a dead rubber.

At Trent Bridge on Friday, they were at their worst, capitulating with the bat and reinforcing the belief that England's fortunes rise and fall with the man at No 3.

If Kevin Pietersen fails, as he did against South Africa, or is unfit, as he was against Holland, then the burden of responsibility appears too much for his colleagues in the middle order.

Power hitters are needed and they are proving hard to find. Options for change tomorrow are limited to Graham Napier and Eoin Morgan.

It appears Napier is seen as a front-foot merchant and could struggle against the bouncers (slow and fast) that have proved so effective in this tournament.

Morgan is yet to successfully transfer the invention and verve that is his trademark in county cricket to the international arena.

England's weaknesses have been laid bare and their head coach, Andy Flower, on Friday made a pretty blunt assessment of their standing in Twenty20 terms.

"I'm not sure where we are ranked in Twenty20 international cricket but in 50 overs we are around sixth in the world and that's the level we're performing at in Twenty20 cricket as well," Flower said.

"We have lots of room for improvement. We're learning about individuals and we're also learning about Twenty20 cricket."

West Indies and Sri Lanka are both ranked below England on the International Cricket Council 50-over chart.

If Twenty20 rankings existed, and surely they are not far away, England would probably slot in behind both those sides.

Sri Lanka are bubbling away nicely in this tournament and the West Indies have beaten them recently as both the Stanford Superstars and in their normal guise.

"In terms of international experience, and when I say that I include world tournaments such as the IPL where you've got the best players in the world playing, we're lacking some of the experience that the other top international sides have so we're learning about this game as the tournament progresses," Flower said.

It is hard to see how England's plan to play Twenty20 catch-up will work out. Beyond Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Ravi Bopara, it is difficult to imagine an England cricketer playing a leading role for an IPL franchise.

They are bursting with unwanted overseas players, just ask Collingwood how it feels to be an unused squad player, and the reality is England missed the IPL boat two years ago.

By the time they dragged permission out of the England and Wales Cricket Board, the franchises had all the imported talent they required.

India have their own problems - Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle, the two biggest hitters in the tournament, went toe to toe in yesterday's match which showed just what happens when sport doesn't stick to the script.

It was Dwayne Bravo who carried the West Indies to an unexpected seven-wicket victory against India at Lord's.

Bravo overpowered them almost single-handedly, following up his haul of four for 38 with an unbeaten 66 from 36 balls to carry his team past India's 153 for seven with 1.2 overs spare.

While Yuvraj was eclipsed for once, he certainly played his part in setting up another fascinating match. In a sequence of boundaries that brought Lord's to its feet, Yuvraj took 34 from 11.