Collingwood relieved to pass the test

As England swept themselves to the brink of disaster on the first day at Lahore, one man stood firm amid the wreckage. By the close, Paul Collingwood was unbeaten on 71 out of a total of 248 for 6. It was his highest Test score and his first half-century, and afterwards he spoke of his relief at finally producing an innings of substance.

"There's a lot of satisfaction and a lot of relief, to be honest with you," Collingwood told the assembled media. "Obviously there's been a lot of criticism flying around, so this was a good day to get a few runs. It's not a hundred or anything major, but it's something major for me, because it gives me the confidence to realise I can actually do it at Test level."

Collingwood has been the nearly man of England's Test squad for the best part of four years. He finally made his Test debut in Galle two winters ago, but after one more match, he was forced to wait until last summer's Ashes decider at The Oval before being offered a second chance. Even then he failed to take it, and had Andrew Strauss not flown home to attend the birth of his first child, he would not have been playing in this match.

"It's my first real knock so I'm very satisfied," he added. "It was fairly difficult out there because it turned a little bit more than we expected on day one, and obviously when I hadn't scored runs in the first few Test matches there was a little bit extra pressure on me. Bit I managed to stick it out, and was quite happy with my shot selection."

That was more than could be said for most of his team-mates, however, with four colleagues falling to sweep shots of varying degrees of rashness, and Andrew Flintoff completed a five-for of cross-batted hoicks with a top-edged pull to fine-leg. Collingwood, however, defended the use of the stroke.

"It's been a very successful shot for us over the last few years," he said. "Duncan [Fletcher] encourages us to use it, and we've been told by Marcus [Trescothick] and all the batsmen who've had experience on the subcontinent that it's a shot that you need in your armoury. It's all to do with shot selection, like a cover drive. What it comes down to is picking the right lines and lengths, but today there were a few misjudgments."

A succession of events both on and off the pitch have turned this Test into a make-or-break moment for Collingwood. Michael Vaughan's knee injury at Multan gave Ian Bell a second opportunity to push for a middle-order place, and having ousted Collingwood for the Faisalabad Test he followed up with a century as well. It was only Strauss's absence that allowed Collingwood a chance to shine in this match.

"I didn't take my opportunity in the first Test, that's all it comes down to," he said. "You can turn around and say I've had bad luck or whatever, but in the end I had two innings to score runs and I didn't take the opportunity. But I'm playing in this third Test match and wanted to make sure I got a score for my own good, rather than anyone else's."

Previously on the tour he had been earmarked as a bowling allrounder, although the success of England's frontline seam attack has relegated his medium-pacers to a bit-part role. As a Test No. 4, however, the onus is squarely on him to score big runs and often.

"I've always believed I could be a front-line batsman," he insisted. "It's as simple as that. I bat at No. 3 for Durham and I've always pushed to get a Test spot as a batsman rather than a bits-and-pieces allrounder or a No. 7. It's a great opportunity to score runs at No. 4, so I was disappointed with the first Test.

"After eight innings and a highest score of 36, you obviously start doubting yourself a little bit," he added. "I'd be lying if I said there was no extra pressure [in this match]. I've got a lot to prove to a lot of people, and I know there's a lot of critics out there and understandably so, I haven't scored the runs. But all it takes is one knock to get those confidence levels high, and you know you can do it."