Plenty for England to build on

Kevin Pietersen shows his authority against Trinidad & Tobago when he made 44

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The Stanford Super Series may not have ended as planned for England but it gave coach Peter Moores a useful assessment of his side’s progress in Twenty20 cricket.

Kevin Pietersen’s team missed the opportunity to earn $1million each as they suffered a 10-wicket defeat in the Stanford 20/20 for 20.

The Stanford Superstars took the spoils in Coolidge, Antigua, on Saturday and in doing showed England where they need to improve in the shortest form of the game.

The country that gave the Twenty20 cricket to the world in 2003 will host the second edition of the format’s ‘world cup’ - the ICC World Twenty20 - in June.

England’s already hectic schedule means they only play one more Twenty20 international before then, against West Indies in March.

Although the Superstars’ margin of victory was emphatic, it was only England’s first defeat in six Twenty20 matches. Prior to victories over Middlesex and Trinidad & Tobago, England recorded three straight wins over New Zealand.

Therefore, while they lost when the stakes were high, there is a solid platform still to build from.

Although the likes of Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison failed to fire at the weekend, all three have given recent reminders of their undoubted talent in limited-overs cricket.

Pietersen struck 90 not out and Flintoff 78 against South Africa in the first match of the NatWest Series at Headingley Carnegie in August, when Harmison also returned from self-imposed ODI exile.

Steve Harmison returned to England's Twenty20 side after a two-year international exile

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England took the series 4-0, Flintoff adding another fifty at the Brit Oval and claiming 10 wickets in four matches, to lay down a marker against - at the time - the number one ranked ODI side.

Unfortunately they struggled to continue this form in Antigua, doing just enough to see off the two domestic champions.

Sir Allen Stanford’s team, however, had the benefit of an intensive six-week training camp - a luxury England could ill afford.

The postponement of the ICC World Twenty20, originally scheduled for September, gave England’s centrally contracted players an equivalent length impasse to fill.

However, it was decided to give them a well-earned break. Harmison was an exception as he played in Durham’s championship run-in.

Much has been made of the seamer’s need for match-practice to maintain his best bowling form. The seven one-day internationals and two Tests England are about to embark on in India will give him plenty of overs to get through.

Next year promises to be similarly hectic with a two-month tour of the Caribbean leading into England’s busiest summer to date.

Sri Lanka’s visit for two Tests and three ODIs precedes the World Twenty20 and the Ashes, with two T20Is and seven more ODIs against the Aussies to follow, not the mention the rescheduled Champions Trophy at the end of next summer.