Middlesex captain Shaun Udal has warned England that the Stanford Superstars are capable of blowing their bowling away.
Relative unknowns could set up a shock
Middlesex captain Shaun Udal has warned England that the Stanford Superstars are capable of blowing their bowling away.
The Superstars' breathtaking hitting secured a 58-run victory over the English Twenty20 champions on Thursday and Udal fears even England's much-vaunted pace attack could be in danger.
"Obviously the pace of the bowling is going to be a hell of a lot different - Flintoff, Broad and Harmison are all 90-mile-an-hour bowlers - and there will not be as many low full tosses as we delivered towards the end of our bowling spell," said Udal. "But they are seriously dangerous."
The Superstars batsmen hit 14 sixes in all, with Andre Fletcher and Kieron Pollard, two relative unknowns, blasting 11 between them in some of the cleanest striking seen in 20-over cricket.
All-rounder Pollard did not come in until the 18th over but cleared the ropes from four of the nine balls he received - three in a row off Tyron Henderson.
"If he is in that kind of mood it's sometimes very difficult to stop him - as we saw when our most experienced bowler and the leading wicket-taker in world Twenty20 cricket didn't have an answer," added Udal. "We tried mixing things up but it was his night. He was frightening.
Pace
"With the pace England have, though, they do have another option to use and I don't think there will be too many pitched up.
"The pitch was more like an English pitch than the others here. That might seem silly to say but the bounce was a lot more true.
"They try to go for a lot more sixes out here, that is a big area of difference and it seems you set up to go hard at the back end of the innings whereas in England you go hard at the first six."
England's squad have become somewhat sensitive about the perception of them back home, playing in a winner-takes-all contest for one million dollars a man when the country is heading into recession.
But Udal said: "They have just got to go out and play their best cricket, as simple as that.
"It's not the players' faults they are in this position.
Millionaires
"They have been offered an awful amount of money to turn up and play a couple of games of Twenty20 cricket and it results in Saturday night when they can become dollar millionaires overnight.
"There is probably not a person among us who could say they would not like that opportunity.
"But I still think there is a twist in the tale somewhere and that will be playing on their minds.
"It is winner-takes-all in Sir Allen Stanford's business and this is what he wants: to put on a great show.
"It will be interesting to see who rises to the occasion."
