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Wednesday 31 August 2011

Broad hopes to carry Test momentum into T20


Broad hopes to carry Test momentum into T20
Manchester: England Twenty20 skipper Stuart Broad on Tuesday said that his team is looking to carry the momentum of the Test series into the one-off Twenty20 game against India here on Wednesday.
"Fans and media want you to win but the real pressure for us is in the change room - it's a game we want to win and are fully focused. We are keen to do well," said Broad on the eve of the T20 match.
The pacer, however, was quick to point out that the Indians are a different kettle of fish in games that are played with the white balls.
"It's a different format. Indians are strong in formats, which are played with the white balls. Besides, we haven't seen a huge amount of them in this format, haven't done the research and it can catch us by surprise," said the captain.
"Cricket is big in India. They have some talented players, exciting youngsters and we expect a tough challenge," he added.
Broad though added that India would be hurt by the absence of some key players like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan.
England are defending world champions but Broad felt it gave his side no cushion, especially since they play so little Twenty20 international matches.
"It's not easy when you meet (with other players) for three days in couple of months. In World Cups, like the one in the Caribbean, we could get momentum even though we had initially lost a practice game in Abu Dhabi."
England played a practice game among themselves at Old Trafford on Tuesday morning and Broad said the idea was to see how players respond to pressure in match situations.
"We wanted match intensity, match pressure for the guys. You know which shots give you value, how do you bowl yorkers in the hole, how do you bat in the first six overs, in the middle overs and then at the death overs," he explained.
"The fast bowlers tried innovative methods to practice bowling yorkers consistently in the middle. An iron rod was put on top of two hard slabs, placed on the two sides of the pitches. If a fast bowler could bowl under the iron rod, it meant he had been able to bowl a successful yorker," he added.
Broad said that the practice match was also designed for players to get used to different angles of the ground.
"The position of the square has been changed for this game. What were straight boundaries earlier are now sweeper boundaries. We need to get used to the size of boundaries."
England had lost the Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka earlier this summer and Broad said the over-riding lesson from the game was they hadn't put enough runs on the board.
"We review every game. Where we failed was to put runs on the board. If we can set a competitive total, we have the bowlers to defend it. That's what we learnt from the Sri Lanka game," he said.
Broad said Twenty20 has been a learning experience for him even though he's the captain of the side.
"I try and watch as much as I can. You watch how a batsman can scoop it over keeper's head and the next ball he can send it 20 rows back in the stands. You realise how calmness in international Twenty20 cricket is important."
England are experimenting with three different captains for three formats of the game and Broad believed it was necessary for the amount of cricket that is being played.
"It's unrealistic for one captain to deal with all three formats because then he would be playing every day of the year. Besides, each captain can bring different ideas to each format. It's worked well so far," said Board.

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