Twenty 20 World Cup - England's fun in the sun

The West Indies was anything but "cool marn" for Australia last night in the T20 final. Australia's attempt to claim the one international trophy that has eluded them, started and ended with a whimper.

Paul Collingwood, the England T20 captain, won the toss and sent Australia in to bat. His decision paid immediate dividends as Australia was reeling at 3 for 8 after 13 balls, with Ryan Sidebottom the chief destroyer (2 for 26).

Shane Watson wafted at a wide ball early on and sent the edge flashing to the keeper, Craig Kieswetter, who parried the nick into the air, goalkeeper style, for Graeme Swann to dive and take a simple catch at first slip. Michael Clarke then arrived at the crease and proceeded to run out David Warner and almost run out Brad Haddin in the space of an over. Haddin was then unlucky to be given out attempting to glance a ball down the leg side. At first glance it looked like he had nicked it, but the replay showed that the ball had clearly hit his waist and he even showed the red mark to his teammates when he arrived back at the dug out. David Hussey (59) and Cameron White (30) added some respectability to the score, but Australia ended with what looked like a reachable target of 6 for 147.

The English started like Betty White from the starting blocks, losing one wicket (Lumb) in the second over, but then exploded with Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen putting on a second wicket partnership of 117 runs including 14 boundaries. With that in the bank, the English only needed a little interest to roll slowly to the finish line and eventually won by an easy 7 wickets. It was fitting that Collingwood hit the winning runs to send English cricket into ecstasy as he has been the mainstay of the shorter forms of the game for some time and ended England's chase of a major trophy at the fifth attempt (3 ODI world cup losses and a loss in the Champions Trophy).

No doubt these cricketers will be welcomed home by the Queen and perhaps knighted ala the 2005 Ashes victors. Or perhaps Her Majesty is a traditionalist and does not enjoy the bastard child of cricket? Either way, England were comprehensively the better team and perhaps Nasser Hussein was correct in his pre-match interview with Clarke when he said that many believed Australia's final was the miraculous semi final win against Pakistan. All that together, it should make for an explosive ashes series coming up this Australian summer.