Moeen Ali: 'We're ready to do England proud and embrace every World Cup moment'
Anderson takes lawn bowls honours... now it's time for us all to deliver on the pitch
Friday 13 February 2015 19:54, UK
England opener Moeen Ali blogs on England's lawn-bowls expertise and World Cup ambitions ahead of Saturday's clash with Australia...
The opening ceremony was a great experience but I’ll know the World Cup has truly started when we walk out in front of 90,000 people to face Australia on Saturday.
Everyone in the group is dead keen to get into that first XI at the MCG and if I’m picked it will be a massive, massive honour to play in my first World Cup game for England.
My family and I watch every World Cup – we’re always glued to the TV when it comes around; my earliest memory is England just missing out in the 1992 final after playing so well, so to go one better this time is a huge motivation.
All the players feel like we’re ready to make our country very proud and in the last couple of weeks people have started to say we’ve got a chance of going on a run.
There’s a good feeling throughout the team, especially after the way that we played in the Tri-Series, bearing in mind that we went into it as underdogs.
A few days after losing the final we all met up and tried our hand at lawn bowls, which as it turns out, Jimmy Anderson is fantastic at (as he is most things)!
We didn’t expect it to be such great fun – or quite so competitive! I was decent but my two partners, Ravi Bopara and Chris Jordan, let me down big time – especially CJ!
Sometimes it’s good to get away from the cricket a little bit, so Steve Finn, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler, Stuart Broad and I are also part of a Fifa15 league; CJ started off as the best player but now that the rest of us know his tactics we’ve sussed him out and deal with him!
We have home and away leagues and big competitions – and we keep a record of the results – but Australia is such a beautiful place to get out sight-seeing that we don’t play at every opportunity.
I’d never actually been to Sydney before; I’ve always wanted to see the Harbour Bridge, which was great, while a few of us have also been to the zoo a couple of times to see the lions, although unfortunately they were being very, very lazy.
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Being in Australia for a month before the World Cup starts has given us a great opportunity to acclimatise and I think we’re in a better position than most.
Beating India twice in the Tri-Series was a great boost for us because they are a top, top one-day side and facing Australia in the final was the perfect chance for us to assess where we are.
I’m pretty confident in my batting and bowling right now but I would have liked to have got a couple of big scores. The starts were there, though, so hopefully they’ll come in the World Cup.
I’d love to get a big hundred in the tournament – that would be a dream – but I’m just going to go out there and play my game; I don’t like to think too much about it. I’d rather enjoy it, be aggressive and play my shots at the top of the order as needed.
I love opening with Ian Bell. He’s obviously a world-class player. I batted with him a few times when I was at Warwickshire but to go out and open with him for England is a great feeling; he’s in such good form at the minute that I feel this is probably the best position for him.
I’ve been bowling quite tightly but there’s not much spin here and you can’t just lob it up, so my role may be more about containing the opposition and picking up wickets where I can.
Starting each game afresh – however you’ve played in the previous match – can be hard to do so I try not to get too far ahead of myself and keep working hard in the nets.
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In Bell, Joe Root and Eoin Morgan we have some of the best players of spin in world cricket, so I know that if I bowl at them pretty well I’m in decent shape.
I feel like I’ve come a long way since the start of last summer but I always knew my bowling could improve in the right environment and so it has proved, even if I’ve still got plenty more to learn.
I’m looking forward to testing my skills in the pressure situations of a World Cup. Tournaments like these are why we play cricket and I’m going to embrace every moment.
Watch each and every game of the ICC Cricket World Cup on our dedicated channel, Sky Sports World Cup, starting with New Zealand against Sri Lanka from 10pm on Friday 13 February.
Before then don’t miss our World Cup Preview Show, with Nasser Hussain and Michael Vaughan, from 8pm on Friday on the same channel, directly after Adam Gilchrist Masterclass.
