Matthew Coles, the Kent seam bowler, has been called up for the rest of the England Lions tour of Sri Lanka after Surrey’s Stuart Meaker pulled out because of a lower back injury

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Feb-2012Matthew Coles, the Kent seam bowler, has been called up for the rest of the England Lions tour of Sri Lanka after Surrey’s Stuart Meaker pulled out because of a lower back injury. Meaker is returning to the UK for further assessment in the hope that he will regain fitness in time for the start of the English season.Meaker’s 44 first-class wickets at 22.56 played a central role in Surrey’s late rush to promotion last year and they will be unsettled about his potential absence as they try to re-establish themselves in Division One.The Lions have two more ODI fixtures against Sri Lanka, in Colombo on Friday and Tuesday, followed by a match against an England XI in Dubai on February 10. Coles only has to make the short flight from Chennai where he has been with England’s Performance Programme.Coles, 21, has 61 first-class wickets at an average of 36, and was afflicted by injury during much of Kent’s lacklustre 2011 Division Two season but his return to the side in August led to a belated upturn in fortunes for the county.

Peter Siddle, Australia’s rejuvenated fast man who has taken 11 wickets in this series at an average of 22.18, has said his axing in Sri Lanka turned things around for him

Sidharth Monga at the WACA10-Jan-2012Peter Siddle, Australia’s rejuvenated fast bowler who’s taken 11 wickets in this series at an average of 22.18, has said his being dropped in Sri Lanka turned things around for him. That snub in Sri Lanka last year, he says, made him work harder and come back a better, and more importantly a fitter, bowler.”I’d like to think so [the fittest he has been],” he said. “I’m feeling good. It’s a good change I guess, probably over the last five or six years I’ve been up and down with injury and had some tough times, but I think the disappointment of getting dropped in Sri Lanka sort of did hit a bit of a spot in me, and I knew I had to work on a few things.”Ever since then I’ve been a bit stronger, and bowling well and injury-free. Everything I’m doing at training and in preparation for games is working, so I’ll stick to that and hopefully I can keep going well for my team and we keep winning Test matches.”Last week Siddle picked up his 100th Test wicket, into the fourth year of an up-and-down, in-and-out career. “It’s obviously a big achievement but I don’t want to stop there,” he said. “I want to keep taking wickets and whether that’s a 110 or a 150 or 300, you never know but at the moment I just want to keep playing Test matches, staying on the park and keep performing well for my team.”Whenever I retire down, I’ll look back on it but at the moment it’s all about just keep moving forward each game and hopefully doing enough to keep winning Test matches for Australia.”Sachin Tendulkar – whom he famously described as “Peter Siddle’s first wicket” – has been dismissed by Siddle thrice. Two of those dismissals came when Tendulkar looked good for a century. One of them was on Siddle’s debut, the other two in the first Test of this series. “I think it’s just a plan I’m going with,” Siddle said of bowling to Tendulkar. “I’m being a lot more consistent than I have been in the past.”I’m probably lucky enough I’ve got him two times in Melbourne, but obviously in Sydney a couple of other blokes got him. We’re building the pressure, and whether it’s against Sachin or against [Rahul] Dravid, any of their batters, if I can build the pressure and it happens from the other end, we’re going to get the breakthrough. There’s no big plans in the way we go about it, it’s just about all three or four quicks or five bowlers bowling together in those partnerships to create the wickets.”One of the important men of that partnership, James Pattinson, is now out with a foot injury. That shouldn’t change things too much, Siddle feels. “Rhino [Ryan Harris] is pretty much an exact replacement,” Siddle said. “He’s a little bit smaller than Patto, but yeah 145k outswingers isn’t a bad bloke to come in and replace him. He’s definitely a player that can fill that role perfectly.”Siddle said that even though Harris has not got much first-class cricket under his belt after the injury, he is ready and has been bowling enough overs in the nets “against our batters in a fierce rivalry”.Siddle didn’t commit as to whether Australia will play four fast bowlers on this green pitch. “You never know with the wicket,” he said. “At the moment it does look good, but we’re still a fair few days out. It [four quicks] worked last year for us, but the wicket was pretty green. It was a nice wicket and we were lucky that we batted well enough to give us enough chance with the ball.”Siddle spoke of how tough it can be to face four fast bowlers. “On this ground sometimes, obviously [with] the pace and bounce, if the wicket does suit that it is very tough work,” he said. “It’s hard, you got the quicks coming at you hard and fast non-stop all day, which does build a lot of pressure. I think if we go that way, and we stick to obviously the consistency and patience that we’ve had out in the middle, the way we’ve been building the pressure, I think it can be obviously an exciting time to watch us go about it.”

Dean Brownlie has been diagnosed with a fractured finger and is likely to miss the rest of the limited-overs matches against Zimbabwe

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2012Dean Brownlie, the New Zealand batsman, has been diagnosed with a fractured finger and is likely to miss the rest of the limited-overs series against Zimbabwe. Brownlie, who made his one-day debut in the first ODI against Zimbabwe in Dunedin, sustained the injury while fielding in the second match in Whangarei on February 6.The New Zealand physio, Paul Close, said Brownlie would meet with orthopaedic surgeon before a recovery plan was drawn up. “Dean complained of soreness with the hand becoming more painful and swollen today,” Close said. “An x-ray this evening confirmed a fracture.”He is expected to miss the remainder of the Zimbabwe series but it’s a bit early to tell how long he will be out. His return to cricket will be based on how quickly the fracture heals and we should have clearer idea of the timeframe and best course of treatment after he meets with the orthopaedic surgeon tomorrow.”No decision has been made as yet on a replacement for Brownlie. New Zealand play one more 50-over game against Zimbabwe, followed by two Twenty20s.Brownlie made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo in November last year, and went on to become only the third New Zealand player to score a half-century in each of his first three Tests.

In a first-of-its-kind in the IPL, Rudi Webster, the renowned sports psychologist, has been appointed by Kolkata Knight Riders as their mental skills coach for the fifth season

Nagraj Gollapudi07-Mar-2012In a first-of-its-kind in the IPL, Rudi Webster, the renowned sports psychologist, has been appointed by Kolkata Knight Riders as their mental skills coach for the fifth season.Webster, who has influenced minds like Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Greg Chappell, Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag, felt that there is a lot of value addition he can provide to the Kolkata players, especially in a pressure-filled Twenty20 environment where players “people tend to panic”.”A lot of people panic under these conditions. Usually, under pressure like that, people who stay calm and take step by step usually do better than people who panic and take bad decisions,” Webster told ESPNcricinfo, explaining the need for someone like to him to sit on the coaching bench and an “asset” to have.According to Webster, his primary job is to assist the coach and captain to get the best out of the players, and to help the players get the best out of themselves. The Barbados-born Webster, a former Warwickshire fast bowler with 272 wickets, had worked with the Indian team as a consultant during their West Indies tour in 2006 and briefly during the Champions Trophy later that year. It was in the West Indies where Sehwag, going through a slump in form and fitness, had a three-hour long chat with Webster, post which he admitted he had never chatted so “deeply with anyone.” The transformation was immediate and Sehwag thanked Webster to clearing his mind.The idea to get Webster came from Venky Mysore, the Knight Riders’ CEO. Mysore, who joined the franchise last year, realised that the tight scheduling in an IPL season and a short time window was a big challenge for a team to come together. He consulted the pair of Gautam Gambhir and Trevor Bayliss, Kolktata’s captain and coach, and the team management before calling up Webster.”There is very little time for a diverse group of players to come together and get to know each other and then focusing on the common goals and align the individual objectives, which is a huge challenge,” Mysore said.There was also the possibility, at times, of a young Indian domestic player being overwhelmed in the presence of more experienced international players. “For an uncapped Indian boy to find himself in the presence of legends like Jacques Kallis or a Brett Lee in the set-up suddenly and say ‘I am good enough’ and be confident, it is always easier said than done.”Hence, Mysore felt the best way to groom young players was to get a professional on board, like Webster, who had the credibility and experience to interact individually with the players and that could bring comfort to the squad. “He is someone who can relate to the players and make a difference because of his experience of having worked with so many great players,” Mysore said.Webster said the reason he took it up was because it was a “different and new challenge.” According to Webster, the performance problems remain the same across all three formats, the only difference being the pressure is condensed into a smaller time-span. “It is much quicker. There’s a lot more pressure,” he said. “The pressure is compressed into a shorter time, so in some respects it is slightly different from the longer formats.”Asked how he aimed to bring about a change, Webster pointed out that everything in sport is linked to performance. “Performance is built on four pillars: fitness, technical skill, strategy and tactics and finally the mental component. You must be strong in all four of them if you want to play well,” Webster said. And most are inter-linked. “The first three of those components is controlled by the fourth – how well you express the skills and how well you set your strategy is controlled by how well you use your mind.”According to Webster, in any form of sport – shorter or longer version – it is the mental skill that determines how well the athlete expresses his physical skill. And that is where his role, as a mental skills specialist, comes to the fore.Because of the demands on the players in a pressure-packed Twenty20 match, dealing with pressure is more important than in the other two formats. And being mentally confident becomes vital in such a scenario, but players are not so well trained in that area. “It is the pillar (mental) that has been neglected,” Webster said.Edited by Kanishkaa Balachandran

Darren Sammy said the sight of Australia rejoicing would stay with him, until he has the chance to do it himself

Daniel Brettig at Kensington Oval12-Apr-2012Kensington Oval’s dressing rooms are close together, only a clear glass partition separating the viewing areas of the two competing teams. Upon leaving the field in the aftermath of a three-wicket defeat, West Indies captain Darren Sammy had an eyeful of what it means to win a great Test match. On the other side of the glass Australia’s players had dissolved into a huddle of embraces, whoops and back-slaps, while the disconsolate hosts looked on.Sammy’s team is developing slowly, but must learn the hard lessons of how to keep fighting over five days of a Test. And how to resort to more than cynical delaying tactics when the result of a match is in dispute. But Sammy said the sight of Australia rejoicing would stay with him, until he has the chance to do it himself.”We dominated a top side with some good players and the way I heard them celebrating on the balcony means a lot to me,” Sammy said. “We’ll take that to heart and look to come back strong in Trinidad. I told the guys at the end of the Test match to keep their heads up. We did a lot of good things. I can remember in the pre-match interview both captains said one bad hour could turn the game around and that’s exactly what happened in this Test match. We dominated Australia for three and a half days and even today when we bowled, we made them fight for that 190.”Since becoming captain and forming his alliance with the coach Ottis Gibson, Sammy has taken West Indies closer to earning respect as a battling, striving team. However the lessons of past matches, including two keenly fought series against India at home and away in 2011, are as yet not fully learned.However Sammy also pointed to the gains of the first innings, in which Kraigg Brathwaite and Kirk Edwards showed the way before Shivnarine Chanderpaul maintained his command of Caribbean batting. West Indies’ bowling was steadfast, augmented usefully in the second innings by Narsingh Deonarine’s off breaks – though the more mysterious finger spin of Sunil Narine was missed.”We’ve learned a lot of lessons. Remember Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi [where West Indies played last November]. Basically similar things keep happening,” Sammy said. “We keep getting close but we just need to find a way to get over that hurdle. That last hurdle. We’ve just got to come back strong. I think the bowlers stuck to the plan most of the time. The way the batters batted in the first innings, leaving alone a lot of balls and stuff like that and Shiv again, showing his experience, the two young openers – Kraigg and Barath – at the top. We did some good stuff, we just lost it in the second innings there.If Sammy’s tactics lurched towards the defensive for too much of Australia’s chase, he said he had been trying to keep a balance between searching for wickets and trying to tease the visitors out by withholding runs. Australia’s captain Michael Clarke refused to criticise his opposite number for tactics that the tourists would have been unlikely to employ, and offered supportive words for the vanquished.”I think they’re probably in a tough position because they haven’t got a full-strength team, do they? That must be hard for them,” Clarke said. “I want to give West Indies a lot of credit. I thought the way they batted in their first innings was outstanding. I think their bowlers knew the conditions well and they bowled pretty well.”I want to take nothing away from the guys in our change room. I thought a lot of credit needs to go to them to be able to get a win out of 450 [by the opposition] on the board on the first two days and our backs against the wall, but I’ll take nothing away from West Indies. I thought they fought really hard, I think it was a fantastic Test match.
“I know everybody at the ground enjoyed it, and hopefully the people back home and all around the world that watch continue to enjoy Test cricket. For me as captain, it’s very important we continue to make this great game very enjoyable and we want people to come out and support us and watch, and hopefully we get a great crowd in Trinidad as well.”A memorable match will live long in Clarke’s memory. As for Sammy, it will burn deeply into his.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) is considering a request from the Bangladesh board president Mustafa Kamal for South Africa to play Bangladesh in May

Firdose Moonda22-Apr-2012Cricket South Africa (CSA) is considering a request from the Bangladesh board president Mustafa Kamal for South Africa to play Bangladesh in May, CSA’s acting chief executive Jacques Faul has said. Kamal made a request to CSA president Willie Basson last week and offered to pay all the costs, whether the series takes place in Bangladesh or South Africa.”We have received the request and we are in the process of checking whether it would be possible,” Faul told ESPNcricinfo. “We’ve got nothing against it, it’s just about scheduling. At the moment, I can say it is a request we are looking at.”Faul will meet with the South African Cricketers’ Association (SACA) and national coach Gary Kirsten next week to discuss the possibility of playing the series. He said the decision will be based on South Africa’s schedule and whether this fixture can be included without causing fatigue. “We always want to play cricket and foster cricket but we’ve got to be careful with how much preparation and how much rest we give our team,” Faul said. “It is quite important how we pace the team.”Bangladesh have no international cricket scheduled before the World Twenty20 in September. Their trip to Pakistan, for an ODI and a T20 later this month, was put on hold after a court order placed a four-week embargo on the tour, and their visit to Zimbabwe in August was postponed because of work being done on the pitches in Harare and Bulawayo.By contrast, South Africa’s schedule is busy. Having already spent a month in New Zealand, they will go to England for more than two months in early July, head straight to Sri Lanka for the World T20, tour Australia in October and November and then host New Zealand during the home summer.Even if all parties agree the Bangladesh-South Africa series should go ahead, it will face a number of logistical problems. With the IPL only ending on May 27, South Africa could be without some of their key players. Twenty South African players, including limited-overs captain AB de Villiers and bowlers Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, are involved in the IPL. Bangladesh, though, only have two players in the competition – Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.Another issue will be location. The matches are unlikely to be held in Bangladesh because of the heat in summer and Faul confirmed South Africa, where it will be winter in May, was the only possibility as a venue. “Winter will be a factor for sure,” Faul said. “Durban is a possible venue but the Highveld [Johannesburg and Centurion] will be out.” Cape Town, where in rains in winter, will also not be a possibility.Another option would be for the series to be held in Zimbabwe, who were approached by the BCB to participate in a tri-series with South Africa. While Zimbabwe Cricket officials could not be reached on Sunday for confirmation on whether they received the request and were considering it, cricket can be played there during their winter. They will host South Africa for five T20 matches, which have not been given international status, in June before maintenance work on their two main centres begins.Zimbabwe could also travel to South Africa for the proposed tri-series and Faul said CSA would welcome the idea. “We always try to help Zimbabwe, we have an obligation to them because we are closest to them and we try to look after them where we can.”

Essex teenager Ben Foakes narrowly missed out on a century on Championship debut as their game against Leicestershire was left finely balanced

18-May-2012
ScorecardEssex teenager Ben Foakes narrowly missed out on a century on Championship debut as the Division Two game against Leicestershire was left finely balanced at the end of the third day at Grace Road.Foakes, 19, made an eye-catching 93 to help Essex to a total of 409 and a first-innings lead of 37. But with Ramnaresh Sarwan making his second half-century of the match, Leicestershire closed on 148 for 3 to lead by 111 runs going into the final day. Sarwan was still there on 61.Foakes, an England U-19 international who was handed his debut in the absence of both Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara, became one of five victims for the Leicestershire seamer Wayne White when he edged behind shortly after lunch.But Sarwan and Will Jefferson steered the home side back into the game with a third-wicket stand of 97, halted when Jefferson was out for 49 just before the close as bad light and rain brought an early end with 6.2 overs remaining.Resuming the second day on 239 for 5, still 133 behind, Essex enjoyed a productive first session, adding 121 runs in 32 overs for the loss of just one wicket. The batsman out was James Foster, who received a virtually unplayable rising delivery from Matthew Hoggard and edged behind. His share of a stand of 87 with the impressive Foakes was 26.Foakes looked untroubled, and cover-drove White to the boundary twice in one over. He reached 50 from 72 balls by on-driving Matthew Hoggard to the ropes for his ninth boundary. He went into lunch on 93 but failed to add to his score after the break, edging a fine delivery from White to wicketkeeper Ned Eckersley in the third over of the afternoon. He hit 14 boundaries and faced 139 balls in an excellent debut performance.A typically aggressive knock of 35 from Graham Napier kept the scoreboard moving, but White brought the Essex innings to a close with the wickets of David Masters and Charl Willoughby to finish with 5 for 74 – his third five-wicket haul of the season. Wicket-keeper Eckersley also impressed with five catches.Matt Boyce and Greg Smith went cheaply when Leicestershire batted again, but Sarwan, who reached 50 off 73 balls with seven fours, and Jefferson regained the initiative until Jefferson edged behind off a swinging delivery from Willoughby.

James Pattinson has asked Cricket Australia to choose a new long-term bowling coach with Test match experience

Daniel Brettig16-Jun-2012James Pattinson, Craig McDermott’s most prominent pupil during a compelling year as Australia’s bowling coach, wants Cricket Australia to choose a long-term replacement with Test match experience, describing such knowledge of international bowling as a “must” for whoever is appointed.CA are set to commence formal interviews for McDermott’s replacement at the conclusion of Australia’s tour of England and Ireland but the team performance manager, Pat Howard, has already spoken with the former Pakistan captain and coach Waqar Younis. Tasmania bowling coach Ali de Winter is another contender, and will work in a caretaker capacity with Australia’s fast men on this tour. Pattinson was adamant that the permanent role should go to a coach with international experience to call upon.”It’s fantastic to have someone as your bowling coach who has had that experience at Test level or [of] international cricket. I think it’s almost a must now, with the amount of cricket that we play, to have someone around the squad who has all that experience in there,” Pattinson told ESPNcricinfo. “For me it is a bit of an emotional roller coaster playing Test cricket, as I’ve found out over the six months I’ve been involved. So to have someone who has that experience and has done that before is outstanding, and definitely a must.”McDermott had an unmistakeable impact on Pattinson’s bowling, encouraging the fuller length and unstinting line that laid waste to New Zealand and India in four Tests before a foot injury halted the 22-year-old’s progress. He returned for one Test in the West Indies and tweaked his back when throwing from the outfield, but is now fully fit for duty in the UK. In the meantime, McDermott called an end to his touring with Australia for family reasons, leaving Pattinson to deal with the loss of a major influence on his progress.”It is tough [without McDermott]. The bowling group were very happy with his input into the team, he did a fantastic job, especially for the young guys coming into the team and trying to find their way,” Pattinson said. “I’m a bit disappointed to see him go, but that’s life. Family things take a toll sometimes. It is sad to see him go, but he’s only ever a phone call away and he’s hopefully going to be there for the rest of my career giving me advice.”I think for me in the West Indies, with such a good start I had [against India], I tried to do a bit too much with the ball and tried to take too many wickets – but the good thing is he’s told me to keep it pretty simple and everything else will take care of itself. It’s great to have him in the back of my mind, [someone] who I can give a call to and get some more advice.”De Winter will need to earn the trust of Australia’s bowlers, though his widely admired work with Tasmania’s seam and swing bowlers has preceded him. “We’ve had little bit of a chat, he’s pretty fresh to me, I haven’t had a lot to do with him over my career,” Pattinson said. “But from all reports he’s a fantastic bowling coach and he’s done really well for Tasmania as you’ve seen over the last couple of years with their success with their fast bowling brigade. So he’s another great inclusion into our squad of staff.”Having arrived in London ahead of a first tour match against Leicestershire on June 21, Pattinson is warming up for a trip that will provide him with valuable knowledge about how to bowl in England. Australia have one ODI against Ireland and five against England, before an Australia A tour will allow Pattinson and others to practice with the Dukes ball in a first-class environment.”The conditions are pretty good for swing bowling over here, so it’s just about my adjusting my skills to the situation and what the pitches throw up,” Pattinson said. “It’s almost a year to the Ashes, so I’ll be doing my best to get as much knowledge of these pitches and tap into some knowledge of past bowlers as well, how they’ve gone over here and how they’ve succeeded.”As the younger brother of Darren Pattinson, who played one Test for England, James Pattinson has plenty of close links to the UK, and was understandably keen to make himself known in the land of his father. “My family’s from here so it is a place I’ve always wanted to go and compete and play cricket,” he said. “It’s going to be a good lead-in for me going into the Ashes and get some experience over here, so I’m looking forward to it.””With my brother it’s always good to have someone who’s got great knowledge of playing over here and the conditions to ring up and have a chat to. I’ll be having a chat to him in more detail in the days to come.”

Kevin Pietersen has kept the door open for a return to limited-overs cricket for England

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Jul-2012Kevin Pietersen has kept the door open for a return to limited-overs cricket for England and is still hoping for a late change of policy by the selectors to allow him to appear in the World Twenty20. Although, he admits that both scenarios still remain unlikely.Pietersen quit international one-day cricket at the end of May citing England’s heavy schedule and the way the ECB central contracts are written meant his decision made him ineligible for Twenty20 selection as players have to be available for both limited-overs formats. Pietersen, who returned to action with Surrey at the beginning of this month ahead of the Test series against South Africa, said the fixture demands would need to change for him to consider reversing his retirement but he still wishes he could play Twenty20.”Never say never. I’m a lot older and more mature than a few years ago, so you never know,” he told the about whether he would return to coloured clothes. “Anything can happen. I’ll never say no, but the schedule would have to be a hell of a lot different for me to come back. Wait and see.”I’ve had my wife, mother, dad, mother-in-law, brothers and my best mates all saying to me ‘don’t you wish you were out there batting against Australia?’ And I’ve said to them I haven’t missed it at all. But maybe all I needed was a break. Who knows? I’ve played a lot of cricket in the last seven years.”As for the World Twenty20, which takes place in Sri Lanka from late September, where England will be defending their title, Pietersen has always been clear that he wanted to play in that tournament.”I still hope there might be a compromise for the World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka,” he said. “The squad hasn’t been announced. I would love to play in that and defend our title with England. If it happens, great, but I’m not holding my breath.”Pietersen’s comments about the packed international schedule have not always gone down well because he continues to play in the IPL. However, he believes it is unfair that he is criticised for taking up that opportunity when so many of the game’s leading players take part.”Okay, the ECB may say me playing in the IPL makes it hard to rest me but what annoys me is that, with every other board the IPL is a matter of fact. It’s not going away,” he said. “It’s going to be there and players want to play in it. Players want to go and earn their money and unless you let them decisions will have to be made.”Big players want to play in front of big audiences. You want to hear your name chanted by 50,000 people. It’s amazing. It makes you feel so good. The window for that has been created by the other boards but unfortunately not ours.”England have responded outstandingly well to the loss of Pietersen from both limited-overs formats. Ian Bell has slotted into the opening role with 364 runs in five innings while Alex Hales made 99 in the Twenty20 against West Indies and Pietersen has enjoyed watching the results.”I’m a huge England fan and it’s brilliant to be beating Australia at the moment,” he said. “We’ve got an Ashes series next year and you want their guys to say ‘we’ve got to play against these blokes next year. We can’t score more than 250 against them in a one-day game’. It’s the mental edge you want over them. We’ve thrown some big punches against them and that’s fantastic.”

It is a clash between two professional and well-drilled outfits that contains what could potentially be one of the contests of the tournament

George Binoy in Townsville18-Aug-2012By finishing second in Group A, England have been drawn against South Africa, winners of Group D, in the quarter-finals of the Under-19 World Cup in Townsville. It is a clash between two professional and well-drilled outfits that contains what could potentially be one of the contests of the tournament: England’s new-ball attack against South Africa’s openers.The majority of England’s players had the day off on Friday, after beating Nepal by 127 runs the day before, and spent it recuperating at their service apartments on Palmer Street: playing FIFA, watching bits of the Lord’s Test, staying out of the harsh sun and keeping off their feet as much as possible. Today, they’re back to practicing with sharpened focus. Tim Boon, their coach, said: “We’re as best prepared as we can be.”England have played South Africa before, in a seven-match home series they lost 2-4 in July last year. Only eight of those South Africans, however, are part of the World Cup squad so half of their outfit is not familiar to Adam Ball’s team. Someone they do know well is the opening batsman Quinton de Kock, who top scored with 341 runs in that series. “We felt if we could get him out early and expose that middle order as early as we could, we were right in there,” said Ball, England’s captain. “That will probably one of our main goals this time around and we will see how it goes.”De Kock is a threat once again. He enters the quarter-final as the World Cup’s leading run-scorer, 226 in three innings in Brisbane. His opening partner Chad Bowes is third on the list with 179 and they have been responsible for South Africa’s substantial batting success so far. In Reece Topley and Jamie Overton, however, England have two of the tallest and quickest bowlers in the World Cup, and they’ll be gunning for those South African scalps as early as possible.”Quinton de Kock had a good series against us but we know how he plays, so there won’t be any surprises there,” said Topley. “We’ve got good plans and we’ll attack him. We’ll attack most of the order to be honest.”Since that defeat to South Africa, England’s Under-19 cricketers have had a rigorous training programme at home, and toured Bangladesh and Australia. “I’d like to think so,” said Boon, when asked whether his players were significantly improved now. “Over the last two years quite a number of our guys have been getting international experience, which is what it is all about.”A “bombshell,” was how Boon described what his players were hit with when they entered theEngland Development Programme. “It’s a really tough regime. Just the work rates and the key learnings at 16-17, it’s a very intensive program at that age.”Ball said the focus of the system he’d been through was to produce “mentally tough players”. He said they’d learned the discipline required of a professional cricketer, the sacrifices that were necessary, and how they couldn’t “just go away and do what every other person does in their daily life.””We have had some very stressful times preparing for this,” Ball said. “We have been preparing for about two years now. That involves long periods up to 10 days at Loughborough, our centre of excellence. Very long days – waking up at 6am and leaving thecentre at about 8pm in the evening. So we have been put through the hard yards and now it’s come to the business time.”The business time didn’t begin well. After winning both warm-up games comfortably, England were sent in by Australia on a difficult batting wicket at Tony Ireland Stadium and dismissed for 143 in their first group match. “We learnt a lot of lessons in the game that we lost against Australia. There were some fundamental things that we didn’t do and that was just to occupy the crease and see the tough times out,” said Boon. “The toss made it tricky early doors, and I think we could have coped with that a little better. It provided us with another learning experience. Most of our players now have played and either got runs or had a decent bowl so everyone’s in a pretty good frame of mind.”In their next two games, England did occupy the crease, chasing 113 in 36.3 overs againstIreland with seven wickets in hand, and making 274 against Nepal. Ball saw room for more improvement. “I think making sure that we post big scores on the board for our bowlers to defend and then again, to chase down big scores,” he said. “We have shown signs that we can do it but we just need to keep developing that on a consistent basis.”One of their problems has been at the top of the order. Coming into the World Cup, Daniel Bell-Drummond had been tipped to be one of the batsmen to watch, but he’s managed only 31 runs in three innings. He began with a duck against Australia and finished the group stage with a hard-earned 23 against Nepal. Boon said it was a “question of time” before Bell-Drummond came right.”DBD [Bell-Drummond] is an exceptional player, an exceptional character,” said Boon. “He’s been in a rich vein of form, he’s scored runs [for Kent] against the senior South African team and to me it’s just a question of time before he comes right.”The quarter-final against South Africa could be Bell-Drummond’s last opportunity to show the world what he can do. Topley, however, is confident that it won’t be. He believes this class of England Under-19 has been groomed to successfully deal “with pressure situations such as Sunday”.