Glenn McGrath - We'll beat England

England Cricket / Editor / 04 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

has, as usual, stoked the fire ahead of Australia's clash with England on Sunday, in what could be his last encounter with the old enemy.

The world champions take on Michael Vaughan's men in Antigua at the weekend with a 100 per cent record in the tournament to date and will expect to put their recent 2-0 Commonwealth Bank series finals defeat to the English firmly behind them when they meet in the Caribbean.

McGrath is set to hang up his boots at the end of the tournament after an illustrious career in both the Test and one-day arena which has seen him torment English batsmen for the best part of 15 years.

The record-breaking paceman is never short of a word or two both on and off the pitch and makes a point of targeting certain England players and predicting the outcome of matches prior to a series or match.

As he approaches the end of his career, 'Pigeon,' as he is affectionately known, could not resist one last dig at England and, not surprisingly, predicts an Aussie victory on Sunday.

"With the way England have been playing and the way we've been playing, we should win pretty well," he said.

"They played well to finish off the summer in Australia - we probably let our guard down a bit and did things differently to the way we had been doing."

The 37-year-old has been mightily impressed with the way the defending champions have adapted to conditions at the World Cup so far and is looking forward to a successful parting shot at Vaughan and co.

"Since we've been over here, we've prepared exactly the way we have wanted to and have been ready for every game we've played," he added. "I think we've played some awesome cricket - and to be honest, no team has really got close to us.

"I always enjoy playing England - I prefer to beat them obviously. Potentially it could be the last time I come up against these guys before I hang my boots up, so it would be nice to finish on a good note."

Australia are the 1.29 favourites to beat England on Sunday with the 2005 Ashes winners trading at 4.3.

McGrath is 5.8 to be the tournament's top wicket-taker, with Sri Lankan speedster Lasith Malinga the 5.1 favourite and his team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan on offer at 5.3.