Cricket: Limited Australia stumped by England

Australia will recognise the species, if not the position. There are millions of gum trees around their country and right now they are up one.

They have arrived in this uncomfortable location partly because of their own inadequacies, partly because they have a depleted cricket team, partly because of misguided selection and partly, perhaps mostly, because England have shoved them there.

It was always possible England would push Australia hard this summer but nobody would have expected two such emphatic one-day victories in three days. England have won both by four wickets, the first, upholstered with a glorious hundred by Eoin Morgan, with 24 balls to spare, the second with 28 left.

These are hammerings in limited-overs cricket and, although they may be, in some respects, just more one-day matches in another series, they are also being played less than a year before the World Cup. There are already dark mutterings that, if this is the best the Aussies have to offer, what really is the point of the Ashes?

It would be characteristic of the Australians' spirit for them now to come back and win the NatWest Series 3-2, starting tonight (NZT) in Manchester. But they have shown scant sign so far of being equipped to do so in any department.

England, by contrast, have looked like a team who know what they are doing, which has not been a familiar state of affairs for around 20 years. They have had their moments but these have tended to slip away quickly.

Now it is different, as Paul Collingwood averred yesterday.

Collingwood is now not only England's most capped one-day cricketer but also their leading run scorer in this form of the game. Nobody anywhere could or would have predicted those two milestones for the boy from Shotley Bridge when he started out nine years ago. But at Sophia Gardens this week, in his 179th match, Collingwood, when he scored his 33rd run in his innings of 48, overhauled Alec Stewart's one-day runs record and now has a total of 4693.

"It was a huge surprise when they announced it and I think there were quite a few Australians even more surprised than me," said Collingwood. "It put a smile on my face. I think milestones and records are things you look back on at the end of your career, but to know you have scored more runs in one-day cricket than any other Englishman is a lovely feeling."

Collingwood has been around long enough to have seen plenty of false dawns and remains cautious. It seems too much to conclude that this really could be their time.

But as Collingwood said: "This is the most exciting one-day side I've played in, without a doubt."

- Independent