Beneath his soft exterior, Paul Collingwood is a hard taskmaster. The England one-day captain, though happy after a crushing win over India in the first one-dayer, demanded consistency from his team.
“We've put in those kind of performances in the pa-st. I want to get some more consistency now, that's crucial,” Collingwood said.
“We've played some great cricket in the past and had great passages of play, but this was a perfect game and we need to do that again and again,” he added.
“We're 1-0 up, but we have another six games left and there is no series won or anything.
“It's a great start for us but we want to continue with that rhythm, that momentum and feel what it's like when you get into those situations and hopefully take that into the next game," he said.  Collingwood heaped praise on Andrew Flintoff, who bowled marvellously in his first one-day international after recovering from an ankle surgery. “He was fantastic. He was raring to go as I think you could tell by the way he ran in. The areas Freddie bowled in this match made it very hard to score off him, especially at that kind of pace, and we put them under pressure and they lost wickets because of it," Collingwood said.
Man of the match Ian Bell was understandably elated after scoring his maiden hundred. “It has taken time, but it was nice to go out and go all the way through.”
Sidebottom sidelined
England seamer Ryan Sidebottom has been ruled out of the next two one-day internationals against India with a side strain, the ECB said on Wednesday.