Vaughan not worried
AFP, London
England captain Michael Vaughan maintained his latest one-day batting failure was not preying on his mind and insisted he was just an innings away from finding his form.Vaughan's team will be going for a 3-0 clean sweep at Lord's on Sunday in the final match of their NatWest Challenge one-day series against India. But while Vaughan has overseen crushing wins by seven wickets at Trent Bridge on Wednesday and 70 runs at The Oval on Friday, his personal contributions with the bat have been nought and four. That means he has scored a meagre 51 runs in his last seven one-day internationals. "I feel good and I'm driving for that score," Vaughan said after the Oval victory. "I just try to keep doing what I have been doing and not change my game from Test match cricket to one-day cricket," added Vaughan, who has led England to a run of seven straight Test wins -- their best sequence in 75 years. "Hopefully, sooner rather than later it will happen. I've not got enough runs yet to find my form. "All I can do is keep going. I got a good ball on Wednesday and strangled down the legside today (Friday)." The India series has been a warm-up for the ICC Champions Trophy, the mini World Cup, which gets underway in England next week. But Vaughan insisted that despite having an unbeatable 2-0 lead, England would not deliberately rest players for Sunday's match. "We'll pick a team to win. It will be the best 11 players out of the squad of 14 to beat India at Lord's." England's latest one-day victory was built on a blistering 99 from Andrew Flintoff, the cornerstone a commanding total of 307 for five. The hard-hitting Lancashire batsman, who has been enjoying a purple patch in both Test and one-day cricket this season, faced just 93 balls with four sixes and nine fours. Together with Paul Collingwood (79 not out) Flintoff shared an England fifth-wicket one-day record stand of 174 that revived the team from the depths of 105 for four. "Flintoff is a big player. He's playing as well as anyone in the world," added Vaughan who also hailed the crowd favourite's disciplined pace bowling. "He's bowling very straight and is our most experienced one-day bowler behind Darren Gough." It is only in the last 12 months that Flintoff has converted his undoubted natural talent into consistent, quality performances at the highest level. Vaughan said the turning point had been his performances in the 2003 home Test series against South Africa where he followed up an entertaining century at Lord's with a match-turning 95 in England's series-levelling win at The Oval. "He got a hundred at Lord's in a dead game and then a 95 at The Oval which must have given him a huge amount of confidence. The game depended on him getting those runs and since then he's been our most consistent batsman." Flintoff, 26, who made his Test debut back in 1998, put his success down to increased self-knowledge. "I am more confident and I know my game a lot better, the way I play, and I am a bit more mature on and off the pitch." India captain Sourav Ganguly, once a Lancashire teammate of Flintoff's and whose side are the co-holders of the Champions Trophy along with Sri Lanka, said: "These were an important three games for us, and we wanted to win the NatWest Challenge. "It would have helped us get ready for the Champions Trophy. "But Flintoff played very well. He always had the talent -- I could see that when I was at Lancashire -- but he has improved immensely."
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