England Cricket / Editor / 07 April 2007 /

Andrew Flintoff has admitted he needs to improve with the bat as England look to finally announce themselves at the World Cup with victory over Australia.

The all-rounder was expected to be one of the leading lights with the bat in the Caribbean but has struggled to catch fire at the crease.

By contrast, he has performed well with the ball but Flintoff accepts he has to combine the two if England are to emerge from the Super 8 phase and book their place in the semi-finals.

"The bowling is taking care of itself. But the one thing that is hard is to get both the bowling and batting going together," said Flintoff, who was out for just two in Wednesday's two-run defeat to Sri Lanka.

"I've always said I consider myself as a batsman who bowls.
"Well, I'd better start scoring some runs pretty damn quick.

"There's been a bit of a role reversal because the bowling is probably my stronger suit at the moment.
"I don't know why I'm not scoring many runs, to be honest. Every time I try to hit the ball, it doesn't go anywhere! I'm confident about staying in but when I play a shot, it doesn't quite come off.

"But hopefully I'm just 20 or 30 minutes at the crease or a good net away from kick-starting my batting.
"I'm working hard and desperate to score runs. There's no point worrying about it. All I can do is keep practising hard and hopefully I'll get the rewards from that.

"I had a dodgy patch in the nets a week or so ago but, since then, I've been happy with the way I've been striking the ball in practice," he added in The Sun.

Flintoff is the 1.3 favourite to end the tournament as the top England wicket-taker but is trading at 21 to finish cricket's showpiece event as the top England runscorer, with in-form Kevin Pietersen the 1.64 market leader.
England can be backed at 7 to reach the semi-finals of the competition and they are also trading at 13 to reach the final.

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