Paul Collingwood hails England mentality as they book final berth

England will discover later today whether they will face Australia or Pakistan in Sunday's Kensington Oval final, after their seven-wicket elimination of Sri Lanka yesterday.

Either way, Collingwood - whose mantra throughout has been that England can still do better - was struggling to say the same about his team's latest performance.

"Let's be honest, there aren't too many areas we can improve on," he said.

"We just need to keep the same mentality - and that's going to be the hard thing, going into a big game."

The signs that will happen are good, according to the England captain.

"The boys keep responding; every time we talk about it off the pitch, we analyse the opposition strengths and weaknesses and we keep executing our plans.

"The batsmen at the top of the order keep doing it as well, and we're not going to go too far wrong."

All of the above happened at Beausejour Stadium, where England restricted their opponents to just 128 for six - after Kumar Sangakkara had won the toss - and then knocked off the runs with four full overs to spare.

Asked how England have come so far, from appearing less formidable not so long ago, Collingwood cited the selection of Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter at the top of the order - and slow left-armer Michael Yardy with the ball.

"Sometimes they are the finishing pieces of a jigsaw," he said.

"We had some very good players in and among others. But this is what we needed, a spark at the top of the order.

"Everybody saw it as a bit of a gamble, but we selected them on potential and we knew exactly what they could do.

"They've batted fantastically well and really helped the middle order to overcome totals.

"Yards just does his job. That's the simple reason why he's doing so well - no airs and graces, he just goes out there and on these pitches he's dangerous for us."

For beaten Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, yesterday was a day to regret - and then forget.
"It was a good wicket to bat on, and 150 was a realistic target," he said.

"In the first six overs, if we'd got 40 runs with wickets in hand we could have accelerated through the middle - but we lost three wickets early.
"Angelo Mathews played very well, but we didn't bat smartly."