Captain Colly praises match-winners

Updated 10.09 Fri Aug 31 2007

Keywords: India, England, Paul Collingwood, cricket, sport

One-day captain Paul Collingwood has hailed England's young stars after they beat India by three wickets at Old Trafford.

A record 99-run stand between Ravi Bopara (43 not out) and man-of-the-match Stuart Broad (45 not out) saw Collingwood's men to victory after the tourists had been dismissed for 212.

Broad took 4-51 with the ball before playing a staring role with the bat while James Anderson weighed in with figures of 3-38 as England opened up a 3-1 lead in the seven-match series

Broad took 4-51 with the ball before playing a starring role with the bat while James Anderson weighed in with figures of 3-38 as the home side opened up a 3-1 lead in the seven-match series.

Collingwood, who was run out for 47, said of Bopara and Broad: "The performances by both of them were exceptionally special. There was a hell of a lot of pressure out there to go 3-1 up in the series.

"I'm not saying at half-time we thought we'd won it, but you'd expect to knock those runs off, but seven down after 25 overs, you think you've blown it.

"But to turn it around like that and have the kind of maturity to go out there and play innings like those, you'd thought they'd have played 100 games each."

By time Collingwood was run out, leaving Bopara and Broad at the crease, England looked to be struggling on 114-7.

But the two newcomers helped Collingwood's men to victory in a dramatic finale at Old Trafford.