England need bravery to adapt

England needed to re-jig their batting order to reflect the match situation in the second Twenty20 at Centurion and they showed a distinct lack of flexibility in leaving it set in stone.

Alastair Cook's side unfortunately reverted back to their long-standing tendency to stick rigidly with plans, which is not at all helpful in the shorter forms of the game - they simply must learn to adapt.

Eoin Morgan needed to be pushed up the order along with Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott if England were to have any chance of reaching South Africa's total, but that did not happen.

You simply cannot have someone like Cook facing 37 balls for 26 runs when you are chasing such a huge score. It was a flat wicket so there can be no excuses for that.

England needed to be brave and say to South Africa: 'right, these are the most attacking batsmen we have and we'll give that total a right good go.'

Players such as Morgan and Pietersen would have thrived on the confidence and bravery of their leaders if they were told to open up the batting and cut loose.

Although the bowlers were so poor that the batsmen were left with very little chance, all England supporters want to see some fight and determination.

Loots Bosman and Graeme Smith were stunning at the top of the order for South Africa, but England needed to show a lot more guts with the ball to combat their aggression.

I wanted to see the likes of Tim Bresnan and Saj Mahmood really take the challenge to the pair and not simply let the batsmen dictate proceedings and hit them around.

James Anderson was the most experienced and established bowler in that unit and England need a bit more from him when the one-day international series gets underway on Friday at the Wanderers.

I can understand that on some days batsmen are simply on fire and Bosman, in particular, had one of those days, but the bowlers still need to respond and not shrivel up and shy away from the contest.

It was telling the way that South Africa approached bowling to Morgan in the second match after his superb 85 at the Wanderers - they had new plans for him and an aggressive attitude which proved successful.

Morgan was a massive positive for England from the two Twenty20s and he has an immense amount of ability - the Middlesex batsman is a huge asset.

Batsmen are stronger now than ever before and Morgan is someone who works very hard on his fitness and power in the gym and reaps the rewards in matches.

It is no good having half-measures with the Twenty20 and one-day sides, and England must select players, such as Morgan, who have the aggression, strength and ability to suit the format.

There are players on the county circuit like Graham Napier of Essex who are very much like Bosman, so Andy Flower can have no complaints about a lack of talent from which to choose from.

I believe that if England can play with freedom and confidence - just like South Africa did at Centurion - then they can be successful in the one-day series, but they must also be brave.

Courtesy: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com