Come on England.

The years 2010. a brave new England have taken the world by storm and reached the World cup final.

A few months ago people would have thought that sentence had a reasonable chance of being made in July this year, such has been the football teams improvement under Fabio Capello, but today it's not the Italian getting the plaudits, instead another Foregin coach, Andy Flower leads his cricket team into their first ICC final since 1992, and the first against the old enemy since 1987

For too long England have been looking in from the outside on occasions like this, but finally they have lived up to their pre-tournament talk of playing without fear, and whatever the result this afternoon they deserve plenty of praise for the way they have gone about this tournament.

In the 6 games England have played so far (2 of which were interrupted by rain) we have scored at 7.97 runs per over, and bowled at an economy rate of 6.68, only bettered by Australias scoring at 8.51 and bowling at 6.67, however the Aussies havent had any rain interuptions so the figures are a little misleading.

One of the most impressive things abouts this England side is that Kieswetter, Lumb and Pietersen at the top pf the order look to provide a very positive start, as is shown by the fact that we are the highest scorers in the Powerplay overs in the whole tournament. Scoring 306 runs of 216 balls, and only losing 7 wickets in that time.

The Aussies have scored 40 less runs in the powerplays, facing 1 extra ball and losing 4 extra wickets.

The last 6 overs see an advantage for the Aussies though, mainly due to Michael Husseys brilliant displays at number 7, being ably assisted by the likes of Cameron White. And despite the sterling efforts of Eoin Morgan and Luke Wright the aussies have scored 80 more runs off just 9 more balls than England in this area.

One area I see England having an advntage is the Seam bowlers variety of balls, and ability to take the pace off the ball. This proved vital against Sri Lanka in the semi's whereas Australia banged the ball in with as much pace, and Pakistan posted a very high total. On one of, if not the, biggest pitches in the tournament taking the pace off the ball means its harder to hit boundaries, and the slower-ball bouncer proved to be a very hard ball for the Sri Lankans to get away.

Key Men

England - Kevin Pietersen. Hardly an original choice, but his performances this tournament have been superb, and Englands talisman can become the top scorer in Twenty20 World cup history with a knock of 83 or more (102 or more to be the top batsman in the whole tournament). Australia have already said they will look to target him. If Pietersen can come out on top of that battle then it will demoralise the Aussies and lift our boys.

Australia - Dirk Nannes. The leading wicket taker in the tournament but went for 8 an over on Friday. Nannes played a huge part in Hollands win over England, and has been impressive for Essex in this form of the game. If Kieswetter and Lumb get after him early, then it will set us up for key performances, however if he gets an early wicket and gets his tail up we could struggle against him


Whatever the result England can be truly proud of the way they have performed in this tournament, and the attitude they have shown throughout it.