Collingwood described his young side's efforts against India as exceptional and attributed it to the fearless attitude of his inexperienced players at Edgbaston.
BIRMINGHAM: England skipper Paul Collingwood has described his young side's efforts against India as exceptional and attributed it to the fearless attitude of his inexperienced players at Edgbaston.
England proved themselves better than Indians in all departments of the game to win the third one-dayer by 42 runs and take 2-1 lead in the seven-match series on Monday.
"We are getting scores of around 300 all the time and that shows we are improving," said Collingwood.
"We have always said the best way to play one-day cricket is with a fearless attitude. It is getting filtered into our bloodstream, but it is still early doors," he said.
Having said that, in fitness of things, the England captain exercised caution.
"There are only three games gone so we won't get too carried away, but in many ways I was as satisfied with today's performance as I was at the Rose Bowl. I know that was what I called near-perfect but today the efforts from all the lads were exceptional."
Though England was missing out on the overwhelming presence of Andrew Flintoff and Dimitri Mascarenhas, they were aided by James Anderson and Chris Tremlett, who struck some telling blows that laid India low. Their fine bowling also received some excellent support in the field.
Collingwood singled out Tremlett for special praise, saying he was constantly improving.
"What you have seen at Edgbaston is that he's got the character to bounce back. We had a lot of faith in him. He didn't start off too well but came back and got those really important wickets at an important time. Things like that, and bowlers like that, can change a game.
"I think we saw in the Test series he has moved on leaps and bounds. He's improving all the time. He's a huge guy and he just needs to get that aggression going sometimes. He showed signs of that in this game."
With the first-ever Twenty20 World Cup coming up, it wasn't a surprise to see England playing safe by not including Flintoff.
"Obviously it was the decision made by the medical staff; they erred on the side of caution.
"He's desperate to play on Thursday but we have got two months of cricket coming up and we have to be careful with him.
"You always miss Freddie but the way the guys played was fantastic. We probably saved 20-30 runs with our fielding alone and that's crucial in one-day cricket."
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