/ Editor / 05 March 2007 /

England's unexpected recent resurgence in one-day cricket has seen them become one of the contenders to lift the World Cup trophy. Australia and South Africa lead the betting in the winner's market, but the rest of the field is tightly bunched, with England available at 11.5.

Those hoping that Michael Vaughan's men will go the distance will be alarmed by the team's record in the big tournaments. The last two World Cup campaigns have ended in first-round exits and England remain the only major Test playing nation never to have won a World Cup or Champions Trophy.

The revamped tournament format should see England progress to the Super Eight stage - they can expect to join New Zealand in coming through a group that also contains Canada and Kenya - but punters don't foresee a long cup run. They trade at 1.51 to be eliminated in the second round.

A glance at England's recent record against their main competitors does not bode well for them. Of the seven other teams that are expected to contest the Super Eight stage, England have only had the better of recent meetings against Australia and Pakistan.

They have won three of their last five one-dayers against those two, but have lost at least three of their last five against India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the West Indies.

Apart from the world's number one rankled team, South Africa, England have faced each of those teams at least once over the last 12 months, suggesting they must raise their game in order to secure the four wins from seven that they will probably need as a minimum to reach the semi-finals.

England of course ended their disappointing tour down under in style, winning their last
four ODIs, and the Barmy Army will hope that their team has turned the corner as those victories followed a run of just seven wins - one of which came against Ireland - from 26 matches.

Those triumphs that secured the Commonwealth Bank trophy came without Kevin Pietersen and James Anderson, who had returned to England with injury problems. Both started well in Australia - Pietersen hit 82 in his one appearance and Anderson took eight wickets in four matches - and they are expected to be the key men in the batting and bowling departments respectively.

Pietersen, ranked fourth in the world in limited-overs batting, made a blistering start to his ODI career, hitting three tons and three half-centuries in his first 10 knocks. He has been less prolific since then, but remains England's most consistent and destructive performer - only Shahid Afridi, Mahendra Dhoni, Virender Sehwag and Adam Gilchrist go into the tournament with better strike rates than Pietersen's 94.9.

Anderson burst onto the world stage in South Africa at the World Cup four year's ago, taking 10 wickets in five matches. He looked to have rediscovered his ability to swing the ball both ways at pace before his latest injury setback and his fitness is crucial to a bowling unit that is lacking experience.

In fact England are short of experience in all areas. Doubts must surround their ability to handle the pressure situations, as only Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood have more than a century of ODI appearances. Australia's five most seasoned players have over 1,000 caps between them.

The calming influence of Michael Vaughan is therefore crucial to England's hopes, as his injury problems coincided with the team's poor form and he did not play a ODI in 2006. Stand-in skippers Flintoff and Andrew Strauss have enjoyed win ratios of 28.6% and 33.3% respectively, whilst England have won 57.4% of matches played under Vaughan.

That record compares favourably with England's overall win percentage of 49.9% and Graham Gooch's 51.1%. Gooch led England to the brink of glory in 1992 and those that criticise Vaughan's ODI batting average of 27.7 will acknowledge his importance to England if they achieve something similar this time around.

The return of Vaughan, Pietersen and Anderson is huge boost, but England's key man will surely be Flintoff. The big all-rounder gives the team much needed balance, enabling England to field a wicket keeper that might well bat in the bottom four.

'Freddie' has struggled with the bat recently, hitting just one half-century in his last 21 ODI innings, but if he finds form in the Caribbean his boundary hitting will energise a line-up that contains the equally swashbuckling Pietersen.

To his own displeasure, bowling is becoming Flintoff's stronger suit, as 122 wickets at 26.41 suggests. He was back to his economical best in the Commonwealth Bank series, conceding more than 50 runs just once.

He had the best economy rate of any bowler who delivered at least 10 overs in the 2003 tournament, sending down his 48.4 overs at a cost of only 2.87 each, and will need to produce similar form in the Caribbean, where he has not flourished in his four appearances. Flintoff made 121 runs and took five wickets on England's tour there two years ago.

England as a team have struggled in the Caribbean, winning just six of their 27 ODIs played in the West Indies. They shared a 2-2 draw with the hosts in early 2004, with their two defeats coming at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia. England play all their group matches on that ground and will hope for a change of fortune when they play their crucial opener against the Kiwis on March 16th.

South Africa are the tournament's form team, and they arrive in the Caribbean having won eight and lost two of their last 10 ODIs. In fact they are the only side amongst the main contenders to have a positive win ratio from their last 10 matches.

The length of the tournament - 51 matches spread over a month and a half - means there is plenty of time for the big guns to find form and momentum, but a win for an England team ranked seventh in the world would nonetheless be a surprise, on a par with Sri Lanka's triumph in 1996.

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