Vaughan plan pays dividends

Stumped: Trescothick is out after a blistering innings

14 April 2012

England fly home from the Caribbean today having shown the first signs of developing a mental strength capable of carrying them to success in the one-day game.

Despite being weary from 10 weeks of tough cricket against West Indies and knowing that a flight awaited them back to Gatwick, England found enough enthusiasm to bounce back from successive defeats at the weekend to claim a five-wicket triumph in Bridgetown, Barbados, to square the series 2-2.

Chasing a competitive but by no means daunting total of 261 for six, the tourists won with nearly three overs to spare after man-of-the-match Marcus Trescothick set them on their way with a blistering 82 off only 57 balls.

It was an impressive effort and was, perhaps, the first time in one-day cricket that the effects of the gruelling fitness regime under captain Michael Vaughan are starting to have an influence on England's results.

"Maybe a year ago we would have fallen just short in that match," Vaughan said.

"It is tough one-day cricket out here and to score 280 over the weekend and lose twice and to then chase 260 and win shows that this team has got a lot of character.

"We could easily have folded because of the defeats over the weekend, but we came back hard and with a lot of inexperience in our team.

"To chase 260 and in the manner in which we chased them to win with nearly three overs left is very, very pleasing."

Quite apart from Trescothick's stunning display, which included a six and 12 fours, there were several other positives to come out of the finale to a seven-match series that was wrecked by the weather during the early stages.

Middlesex's Andrew Strauss scored his second successive half-century and Durham's Paul Collingwood underlined his value to the side by keeping his composure to score an unbeaten 46.

But with the First Test against New Zealand at Lord's only a fortnight away, the return to form of opener Trescothick was the most pleasing aspect of the one-dayers after he suffered a lean spell during the 3-0 Test series triumph.

Trescothick's 130 in the first of the weekend's matches in St Lucia and yesterday's display earned him the man-of-the-series award and he said: "It's about time. I have been waiting 10 weeks to do enough to win something like this.

"This is a big step forward for us in our preparation and planning. It has been a hard build-up for us at the end of the tour after those back-to-back games and to come back and win is a big improvement for us.

"We are all tired but have stayed mentally focused and everybody has continued to work in the gym and in the nets. We have shown that the mental side of our game has had a big improvement."

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Vaughan plan pays dividends

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