Collingwood sees room for England improvement
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Your support makes all the difference.Paul Collingwood gave his England team a 'can-do-better' report after they started their World Twenty20 Super Eight campaign with a six-wicket win over champions Pakistan.
Kevin Pietersen's unbeaten 73 ensured England completed the job safely at Kensington Oval yesterday, after Pakistan had mustered only a below-par 147 for nine on a pitch of decent pace.
Collingwood described Pietersen's batting as "exceptional" but conceded England have room to raise their game in other areas.
"It was a good performance. It was nice to get the full 40 overs in, because then you always get a proper game," he said, having endured one Duckworth-Lewis defeat and a no-result in England's group matches in rainy Guyana.
"But we can improve on it as well. There were certain areas we weren't very good.
"If we improve on a few things that will be good.
"I thought there were times we didn't bowl too well at the start, gave them too much width, and we were very sloppy at the end of the innings.
"If you've got a team down you need to kill them off. We had a few opportunities at the end to do that. But we got the two points and are delighted to beat a very dangerous side."
Collingwood was heartened not just by Pietersen's batting - the pair shared a third-wicket stand of 60 - but also that of openers Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb.
"There were some great partnerships, and the boys got us off to a great start again at the top of the order - giving us a real impetus.
"I think their [Pakistan's] spin was going to be the main threat, and thankfully the two guys at the top got the run rate up so that we didn't really have to push on too hard."
England, who are set to play South Africa in their second Super Eight match at the same venue tomorrow, eventually won with three balls to spare.
Although Pietersen himself appeared largely underwhelmed by what he had achieved, Pakistan coach Waqar Younis joined Collingwood in according him high praise.
The champions dropped five catches - including two tough ones offered by Pietersen - but Waqar insisted they had been beaten by a special innings.
"You must give Kevin Pietersen credit for the way he played - he batted like a champion and took the game away from us," he said.
"It can be very frustrating, the way we dropped the catches and the way we fielded. But we're not out of the tournament, so we don't really have to worry about that.
"I thought 147 was a decent total, maybe 15 runs short - but with our bowling attack, I thought we could have managed it."
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