England stuck in the middle

By Chris O'Keefe

Take a bow Paul Collingwood. The Durham batsmen scored 190 last week against Derbyshire and followed it up 181 this week against Somerset.

That's his fourth century in the Championship this year and for a player who could only play one day cricket, he's proving quite a player in a longer format. However it could provide a testing homework assignment for England's selectors. Here's the tricky part!

He has outscored the entire England middle order (including Kevin Pietersen) over the past week. England's middle order amassed a measly 145 runs. Taking Pietersen's achievements out of the equation, Ian Bell, Andrew Flintoff and skipper Michael Vaughan have scored just 24 runs in the test match.

When you take into account that their Australian counterparts (batting number 3-6) scored 338, without overstating the point that is a gaping hole. England need to find 193 plus start taking catches that will subtract from the Aussies total.

Well Collingwood offered 371 runs this week to think about. Maybe England's selectors simply need to do their sums before selecting the team.

By the way there is one denominator, Collingwood can take on the Aussies! He was part of the rescue mission that drew the Natwest Series Final at Lord's. Collingwood also hit the winning runs in last Champions Trophy semi-final demolition.

So the mathematics is overwhelming, speaking of overwhelming Ian Bell was overwhelmed by the Australians in the first test and there would be the solution to this sum.

England - Bell + Collingwood = Middle order stability? I'll leave the solution to your own judgement!