Flintoff up for South Africa challenge

21 August 2008

Andrew Flintoff frees his arms in the nets as England prepare for the first ODI

Andrew Flintoff is hoping England’s new-look team can use the NatWest Series as a springboard to consistent success on the world stage.

England begin the NatWest Series with tomorrow’s day-night international at Headingley Carnegie against a South Africa side who can regain the number one spot in the official one-day rankings if they achieve a 4-1 series triumph or better.

Short of facing world champions Australia, which England will do next summer, the hosts could not face a tougher start to the new regime under recently-appointed captain Kevin Pietersen.

But 30-year-old all-rounder Flintoff, now the oldest player in the side while Paul Collingwood serves the final game in his four-match ban, believes the challenge of taking on one of the best teams in the world can inspire England to new heights.

“It’s a pretty different team to the Test side and a lot of lads have come in wanting to impress and cement spots within the side so there’s a freshness about the squad,” said Flintoff.

“Kevin has obviously taken over as captain and everyone is eager to impress. England for a long time now have under-performed in one-day cricket and we’ve got a chance to address that now and hopefully put some performances in.”

During Flintoff’s 125-match career with England’s one-day side they have often struggled to produce their best on a consistent basis, and have not reached the latter stages of a World Cup since finishing as runners-up in Melbourne in 1992.

Their record in the Champions Trophy is little better, although they did lose in the 2004 final on home soil, but with a new captain and rapidly-evolving side Flintoff hopes this current group can finally perform on the world stage.

“It probably goes back further than just us,” he stressed. “We got to the World Cup final in 1992 and since then we’ve never been consistent.

“We’re definitely aware of that but we can’t let it lie too heavily on us. We’ve got to go out there and perform and we’re well aware of that, but we’ve got to do it consistently.”

Victory in the series against South Africa would suggest a major turnaround in fortunes given that England have won just six of their last 19 matches - the tourists have triumphed in 16 of their last 19, including winning their last nine in a row.

Flintoff has thrown his support behind recently-appointed captain Kevin Pietersen

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“They’re the form side; they’ve beaten everyone they’ve come up against,” conceded Flintoff.

“They are a formidable team in one-day internationals and it’s going to be tough for us, but we’ve got to test ourselves against these sides.

“We’ve beaten the best sides in the world before, but we’ve got to beat them over a period of time and not just in one-off games.”

Having Flintoff back in their line-up will be a considerable bonus for an England team without Collingwood while left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom has failed to recover from the hip problem which has troubled him recently.

Flintoff also reserved words of praise for Pietersen’s impact since he took the reins from Michael Vaughan and Collingwood as captain of the Test and one-day sides.

England won the final Test of the npower series at the Brit Oval thanks in no small part to Pietersen’s first-innings century - and Flintoff expects his new skipper to lead from the front again.

“He’s made a great start,” enthused Flintoff. “He’s won his only Test and in the past week or so there’s been a really nice feel about the camp.

“Kevin’s taken to the job really well. He was really enthusiastic about doing it and I don’t see why he can’t be a successful captain for a while.

“He’s stamping his own character onto the job. We’ve seen the way he plays and he’s bringing that into his captaincy and bringing that into the team a little bit as well.

“He’s confident, he’s single-minded, he’s an aggressive bloke and his team, especially in the last Test match, also played like that and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happens in the one-dayers.

“Kevin is keen for people to express themselves and have no fear of failure, but there’s a balance between doing that and being reckless and we’ve got to find that balance as a team.”