When you're on a roll, you're on a roll! Following the hullabaloo over the Ashes success, England could be forgiven for taking the foot off the pedal, but no. Not when there are new players eager to join in the fun and new records to break. The first of two T20 games also gave Paul Collingwood the opportunity to remind us of his short-format captaincy credentials in advance of the World Cup and the England one-day specialists like Yardy, Wright, Morgan and Davies to contribute to their country's hugely successful tour of Australia.
The home team contained only three of the beaten Test side: Smith, Watson and Johnson. However, with the likes of Cameron White and David Hussey (even at 33 surely due a chance at Test level?!) coming in, Australia must have fancied their chances. A few years ago, an opening attack of Brett Lee and Shaun Tait would have scared any batting line-up but they were off the boil today. Nevertheless, it must have been a pleasant surprise for the Adelaide public to witness something rare in the Ashes series, a really exciting finish! Last ball, last wicket, last run needed for victory. Fabulous stuff!
You have to feel sorry for Shane Watson. He was the best batsman (59 runs) and best bowler (4-15 in 4 overs) by a country mile, yet ended up on the losing side. Eoin Morgan proved again what a clever T20 player he is, but other plaudits rightly went to new boy Chris Woakes. The 21 year-old shone in Warwickshire's otherwise mediocre season, not only with the ball but also with some fine knocks well down the order. He was my first Player of the Week back in May and it's an award he may well win again in 2011. For now, he can satisfy himself with having hit the winning run, and the shot which gave England a world record 8th consecutive Twenty20 victory.
OK, so it's a format in its infancy. This was only the 197th such international but in a form that seems to require not only skill and tactical nous but also a shedload of luck, a run of eight wins is an impressive achievement. South Africa and Pakistan each reached seven on the bounce in 2009, although their runs included games against, respectively, Scotland and Ireland. England's successes began with a Pietersen-inspired win against Pakistan in Bridgetown, part of the sequence which resulted in their seizing the World Cup in May 2010. Four months later, they brushed Pakistan aside in two fixtures in Cardiff, and now this thriller in Adelaide. I think the run could well be extended further at Melbourne, and then England will look to compound the hurt of their hosts in the 50-over stuff which starts at the weekend. The tourists have demonstrated that not only can they bat, bowl and field competently, they are also a formidable unit, greater than the sum of their parts, and for the first time in years they have rediscovered the taste of winning - over and over again!
