Losses against Pakistan, SL made us stronger: Plunkett

MANCHESTER: England pacer Liam Plunkett declared on Tuesday that the hosts were relishing at the opportunity of meeting old foes Australia in Thursday’s World Cup semi-finals at Edgbaston.

“Australia is a game that gets the juices flowing,” said Plunkett ahead of the potentially explosive last-four encounter. While Australia’s ascent to the last four was pretty much straight forward, England took the risky route as they fell against Pakistan and Sri Lanka before back-to-back wins against India and New Zealand saved them from an embarrassing World Cup exit on home soil.

“We’ve performed really well in the last two games,” said Plunkett, who missed the games that England lost. “I think those defeats have made us stronger,” he said. “We had a few bad games and went away from our style of cricket, but I feel like we’ve caught that in time.

“We’re back to playing our best brand of cricket and we can still improve. “I feel like we had a wobble at the right time, a bit of a blip, and it’s made us stronger. “How we’re feeling right now going into this semi-final, we’d have taken it at the start of the competition.”

Expectations are high in England putting extra pressure on Eoin Morgan and his men but Plunkett stressed they were ready for the challenge “It’s a matter of how you deal with pressure, it’s not a bad thing that it’s there,” he said.

“People can thrive on it, people step out there and enjoy those moments. Other people have played under pressure, they’ve played in IPL and competitions around the world. “It’s a World Cup but you’ve got to enjoy it and deal with it as quickly as you can,” he said.