BIRMINGHAM, Aug 28: England captain Paul Collingwood believes his team are well on the way to developing the ‘fearless attitude’ required for one-day cricket after beating India by 42 runs here at Edgbaston.

They may have been without injured all-rounder Andrew Flintoff and lost the hard-hitting Dimitri Mascarenhas to a thumb injury during the warm-up, but England still posted a highly competitive 281-8. Ian Bell led the way with 79, his third score of fifty or more this series and his best in any international match at his Warwickshire home ground. He followed that up with two sharp catches and a run-out, with England’s all-round fielding far superior to that of India.

“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, there are only three games gone so we won’t get too carried away,” Collingwood told reporters. “We are getting scores of around 300 all the time and that shows we are improving.

“But in many ways I was as satisfied with this performance as I was at the Rose Bowl (where England won last week’s series opener by 104 runs). I know that was what I called near-perfect but today (Monday) the efforts from all the lads were exceptional.”—AFP