MATT PRIOR'S WARNING

MATT PRIOR has backed England's born-again batsmen to take the Champions Trophy by storm.

Andrew Strauss's men shocked the cricketing world by walloping much fancied Sri Lanka in their Johannesburg opener on Friday.

After their nervy recent displays against Australia, Eoin Morgan, Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah cast off their shackles to guide England to a thumping six-wicket win.

Skipper Strauss was delighted his players listened to his plea to bat without fear after a string of fraught one-day displays against the Aussies at home.

Wicket-keeper Prior reckons the message has finally sunk in and says England's batsman are relishing their new-found freedom.

"Our batters have come in for a bit of stick in the last few weeks, and rightly so, but the way we played Sri Lanka's spinners in particular was fantastic," he said.

"It's important that you don't put too much pressure on yourself in one-day cricket.

"If you get a little bit behind the eight-ball or a little bit low on confidence, pressure builds very, very quickly because you have to keep up with the rate.

"But it's important to have that freedom and not put pressure on yourself to go out and play big shots.

"You've got to back your ability and your skills. Then it's just a question of going out to the middle and expressing yourself."

Sri Lanka's feared spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis were made to look plain on a Wanderers' wicket labelled "poor" by captain Kumar Sangakkara.

Rookie Morgan crashed his second 50 in four games to ease England home with five overs to spare.

Prior added: "Eoin has been brilliant. Everyone knows from watching him play for Middlesex what a class player he is and the shots he plays.

"But there's a lot more to him than a few funky sweeps here and there. He is a quality player and the way he played both their spinners was fantastic. It was as well as I have seen spin bowling played - the way he just manoeuvred the ball around was very impressive.

"His partnership with Owais was crucial for us after Colly had come in and taken the attack to them."

England take on hosts South Africa today at Centurion Park knowing victory will guarantee them a semi-final spot.

The match holds no fears for confident Prior.

"To perform the way we did against quality opposition like Sri Lanka was fantastic," Prior said.

"Of course it fills you with a lot of confidence.

"It would be easy to say 'Wow - how well did we play?' but we won't get ahead of ourselves.

"Everyone told us we were terrible after Australia beat us 6-1 and now they say we are fantastic.

"We know South Africa is going to be a massive game and it looks like Centurion is turning a bit more than Wanderers."

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