Collingwood - dellmar

ST JOHN'S, Antigua:

ENGLAND'S PLAYERS claim they have put Tuesday night's scare against Trinidad and Tobago behind them and are still on course for Saturday's 20/20 for 20 showdown with the Stanford Superstars.

Pace bowler Steve Harmison, who bowled the final over of a tense encounter against the Champions Cup winners as England held on for a one-run victory, said the match was just what the team needed.

"I enjoyed it ... it was good practice. The two (warm-up) games we have had have been good practice for us because they haven't been one-sided. If they had been walkovers, then we would not have had the experience of big pressure games," Harmison said yesterday.

"It was good for me to bowl the last over and get that under my belt. It was the cards that we were dealt that we only had two fit seamers to start with so we opened with a spinner and I had a bowl at the end."

Trinidad and Tobago required 10 runs off the final over and then three off the last ball to pull off an unlikely victory. However, Ravi Rampaul was run out attempting the tying second run.

The spectre of the winner-takes-all US$20 million prize looms even closer now, but the lanky Durham speedster says that's not at the front of his mind as Saturday's date with potential riches looms.

"The money goes out the window when you walk across that white line. At the end of the day it's a game of cricket and you play for each other and pull together to win," he said.

"Winning is a habit and we want to keep the momentum; the last two games show that we want to go on winning and hopefully on Saturday we can do the same thing."

Former England one-day skipper Paul Collingwood also felt the team was in good shape.

"Everybody's excited and really looking forward to the game," the allrounder said.

"Last night's game was a good test for us in a pressure situation. Any game that goes down to the wire is a good one," he said.

"You can't get away from the fact that Saturday is a big game for us and if we can keep that momentum going, all the better. It's exciting."

-Tym Glaser