Collingwood content despite wash-out

The England captain Paul Collingwood was able to take the positives out of his side's washed-out Twenty20 clash with Australia yesterday. The game at Old Trafford was abandoned because of persistent rain with England struggling at four for two off just seven balls in reply to the tourists' 145 for four. However, Collingwood was pleased with his side's performance in the field as they restricted Australia to a total he believed they could have chased down despite their poor start. He told Sky Sports: "We hoped to get a full Twenty20 match in today, but Manchester skies, grey skies, the rain came in. "But I thought we actually bowled and fielded pretty well today. The boys worked to the plans, we thought we got the ball in the right places to their batsmen and we put them under a bit of pressure. "I am pretty delighted with the way the fielding and bowling went today, but it's a shame we didn't finish it off." Collingwood himself was the pick of the England bowlers as he took two for 20 off his four overs, trapping opener David Warner lbw before having David Hussey stumped by Matt Prior without scoring in the space of three balls. He said: "It was nice to have a bit of a bowl and get a couple of wickets." However, England found themselves on the back foot when debutant Joe Denly was caught for nought by Nathan Hauritz trying to hook Brett Lee, and Ravi Bopara soon followed for one when he nicked Mitchell Johnson to Shane Watson at slip. Collingwood said: "When you have got three 90mph-plus bowlers, they are going to hit you pretty hard. "It's obviously disappointing to lose those two wickets, but it would have been still a gettable total on that wicket." Asked what he had said to Denly afterwards, the England skipper replied: "Nothing. "In many ways, it's good to see he has got the confidence to go out try something like that. "It didn't come off today, but hopefully in the future it will."

* PA Sport