One of England’s perennial areas of concern in limited-over cricket has been its unduly cautious approach at the start of the innings. In the World T20 in 2010, coach Andy Flower put an end to such misplaced conservatism.
For good measure, he roped in Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb, two relatively-unknown cricketers, who thrived in the freedom that anonymity brings with it.
While the duo mightn’t have amassed big numbers, it delivered what Flower wanted: blazing starts.
Kieswetter and Lumb scored 359 runs off 287 balls in the tournament at an average of 25.64. That set things up for Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan in the middle-order. “Go down blazing, those were our orders, without a doubt,” said Kieswetter of the brief he and Lumb received.
In the final, against Australia, Kieswetter, who was also England’s wicketkeeper, pulled off a brilliant catch down the leg-side to dismiss Brad Haddin. That was the start of a truly memorable day for him as his 111-run partnership (68 balls) for the second wicket with Pietersen took England home.
Kieswetter put down his success to an “addictive” team culture. “To be an opener in Twenty20 cricket is a high-risk environment. You have to be quite selfless. [But] Everyone was looking to move the team forward, and that made it easy.”
