London, September 08: England captain Paul Collingwood hailed his team’s character as they equalled an international Twenty20 record by winning their seventh match in a row.
“In this form of the game it can be tough to win consecutively,” he said after a six-wicket win over Pakistan.
“It just takes one performance from the opposition to take it away from you.
“Having won the World Cup you have added pressure, but the way we’ve played over the last two games, the boys are enjoying that added pressure.”
England bowled Pakistan out for 89 on Tuesday and then secured victory with six overs to spare to seal the Twenty20 series 2-0.
The two wins in Cardiff follow a run of five successive victories in the Caribbean which resulted in England being crowned World Twenty20 champions in May.
“It’s a special achievement, and we obviously did it during the best time – which was during the World Cup,” he added.
“To continue with that form, even though we’ve lost a couple of players, I’m delighted in the response of the dressing room – and the bowlers as a unit are doing fantastically well.
“I think in the last seven games they haven’t conceded more than 148 runs – which is fantastic in the Twenty20 format.
“We are just doing a lot of things really well – and we still have a lot of intent with the bat as well.”
Counterpart Shahid Afridi was understandably in a very different mood after his team’s fifth defeat in six matches against England on a tour that has been overshadowed by allegations of corruption.
His beleaguered squad now face the prospect of a five-match one-day international series beginning on Friday.
Here’s hoping we get some good games in the one dayers. This has been very flat sadly
“At this stage I just want one victory and I know one victory will be very good to get the morale high,” he said.
“As a captain I want to be positive all the time but we are still making mistakes.
Pakistan were bowled out for 89, their lowest T20 total and Afridi, who made a scratchy two, admitted: “It was very immature from my side, and from all the batsmen.
“The fielding is the main area, we are not enjoying it in the field.
“I know it’s difficult but we should forget everything else and focus on the cricket.
“We are not playing proper cricket and losing every game which keeps your morale down game by game.”
–Agencies–