By Sreelata S. Yellamrazu

Victories like these don’t come everyday. And for one player to make such a tremendous impact with such consistency is an unbelievable feat. Yet Paul Collingwood managed to save the ship from drowning. Better still, it allowed England to touch shores of dignified success.

Michael Vaughan had barely recovered from his knee operation that his hamstring forced him to hand over the reins of captaincy once more to Andrew Flintoff and leave the England squad in uncertainty once again. To add to the humiliating five nil Ashes whitewash, England did not stand an inch of hope to survive the tri series, let alone compete.

England did beat New Zealand in their first encounter and they did beat Australia in the tenth game of the series. But it was still a far fetched idea, at the time, to imagine England in the finals. But that was when one factor was discounted. Kevin Pieterson was injured as was Trescothick ill of another kind. The only man who prominently England looked on to save was Flintoff. But it was not him either.

Paul Collingwood has fought the odds repeatedly. Always a replacement in the team and never one to be counted amongst the big names, Collingwood changed his fortunes and perhaps more so, that of the team with his stupendous effort in not only pushing England into the finals but to repeatedly put the game beyond Australia.

Beating New Zealand despite Stephen Fleming’s century should have been big enough, but Collingwood’s outstanding performances with the bat including the significantly important finals could not have been better highlighted. For Australia, it was humiliation of the worst kind. The worst part of it was that it was not expected.

Of the three teams in the tri series, Australia looked the most dominant and forget the tri series, there has been serious talk of Australia retaining the World Cup trophy for a third time in succession. In the midst of it, Collingwood’s sterling efforts brought Australia down to humble earth and elevated England’s stars to a respectable high.

To say that either team needed one truly marvelous performance to win the finals was one thing. But Australia has managed to come back even when pushed into losing the first final. It was important for England to not make this first victory look like a fluke. Worse still, had Australia won the game in Sydney, perhaps, just perhaps, Australia would have used the momentum to force things their way and push England back into submission.

It was not a third century in succession. But in weight, it was a lot more than that. Collingwood’s innings of seventy was as important as the century in Melbourne. It nullified all the efforts from likes of Hayden and Ponting and pushed England right back on the radar and into serious contention come the World Cup. The field just got wider!