Collingwood: We are not beaten yet

Yesterday’s comprehensive seven-wicket defeat by Australia with 31 balls remaining has shaken the belief in England’s preferred top order for the ICC World Twenty20.

England believed the pairing of Darren Maddy and Matt Prior as openers followed by the explosive strokeplay of Luke Wright would be the ideal combination to exploit the first six overs of fielding restrictions.

But in six innings in the tournament between them they have only scored 74 runs and registered a top score of 20 - struggles which undermined England whole innings yesterday as they slumped to their lowest Twenty20 total of 135.

Collingwood, though, remains confident in their abilities, stressing: “It’s only two games so far in this tournament.

“It’s early doors so I’m not going to start panicking now and I still believe in those guys at the top of the order.

“They have shown they have the ability and have proved domestically in England they can go out there and smash the ball around.

“We’re going to have to have a chat and look at the areas where we can improve, but when you back players to go out there and perform sometimes they get strength from that - they haven’t come off in the first couple of games, but they have the ability.”

England’s most likely alternative is to either promote Kevin Pietersen into the top three from number four or introduce Vikram Solanki for his first match when they meet the tournament hosts tomorrow.

Pietersen has looked England’s most accomplished batsman in the first two matches even if his pre-match comments that he wanted to humiliate Australiament perhaps stirred them.