Grounded Trott is happy to avoid six appeal

But it is comforting to know they can rely on Jonathan Trott, a paragon of consistency in an alarmingly inconsistent team.

Trott was able to calm concerns about the well-being of England’s captain and off-spinner and make it clear he will not be changing the no-frills batting style which is serving him and his adopted country so well.

Trott has made four half-centuries in five Group B matches, yet has attracted criticism for what some see as dour and one-dimensional accumulation.

No-one in the England camp is complaining, though, and that is what is important to Trott.

From No 3, he has been a constant in setting and chasing targets, and if the pitch for tomorrow’s crucial match against the West Indies resembles the awkward one on which England beat South Africa at the same venue last week, Trott’s contribution could well be key again.

“People are entitled to their own judgement,” he said. “As long as I’m being effective, and I work hard with (coach) Andy Flower, whatever he says is more important to me than what other people say.”

Trott has made himself unique among England batsman by making the most one-day international runs – 1,147 – without ever hitting a six. The 29-year-old has even surpassed the limpet-like Geoff Boycott, and in these days of habitual power-hitting all around him his grounded approach is conspicuous. Trott can clear the ropes, though, as he has proved both for England and Warwickshire in Twenty20 cricket.

He was happy to go on the counter-attack, too.

“Have you not watched me play T20?” he asked in response to a question about his lack of sixes.

“They’re big fields at Edgbaston and I hit a few one-bounce fours in Australia as well.”

For Trott, who can operate close to a run-a-ball tempo and is an expert rotator of the strike, batting appears to be all about percentages and risk management.

“It is one of those things where the situation determines it.

“If you try to hit it hard along the ground, the outfields are hard enough around the world in one-day cricket for boundaries anyway.

“If I started hitting the ball in the air and getting caught at the boundary, you guys would probably be having a go at me for that anyway.”

However he comes by his runs, England have been grateful to Trott at this World Cup.

While he has kept producing close to his best, his team-mates have lurched to extremes – with defeats against supposed minnows Ireland and vulnerable co-hosts Bangladesh leaving them on the verge of another early exit from a competition they have never won.

“We haven’t played consistently,” he said. “We’ve either played badly with the bat and well with the ball, or badly with the ball and well with the bat.

“We’ve got ourselves into this position, and it’s only us who can get ourselves into a position where we can go through. It’s four knockout games for us, and three for everyone else.”

Trott will be sticking to his principles to try to help England progress and will not be suckered into playing unwise shots even when the temptation is high with fielding restrictions in place.

“You can get caught up in power-play and as a batsman, I think changing your mindset can be quite dangerous as well. Maybe trying to hit more on the ground, maybe if you can find the gaps on these quick outfields, is a good thing. It is all about weighing up your options and where the fielders are at, and what your strengths are as a batsman and what your boundary options are.

“It’s all about playing the situation to the best of my ability and what’s best for the team.”

Like Strauss and Swann, Trott has felt unwell in recent days.

But he had recovered sufficiently to bat in the nets yesterday morning and expects his team-mates to be healthy too in time to face the Windies.

“I’m pretty confident they will be all right. These things are normally 24 or 48 hours,” he said.

West Indies are also optimistic about their major injury doubt, opener Chris Gayle.

It fell to another swashbuckling Caribbean striker, Kieron Pollard, to confirm Gayle’s abdominal strain should be healed in time.

“Whatever England say about coming back, they are entitled to do that. Each and every game we go into, we regard ourselves as favourites,” said Pollard. “We have a lot of things that are driving us at the moment, one of them being that we were written off. We are using that as a motivating factor.”

• India batsman Rahul Dravid is part of a strong MCC squad for the curtain-raiser to the new English domestic season.

MCC will play county champions Nottinghamshire in a four-day game at the Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi at the end of March, before both teams take part in the Emirates Airline Twenty20 Trophy alongside Durham and Sussex.

The side, which will be captained by Australia’s Chris Rogers, who has signed for Middlesex, will also contain Afghans Mohammad Nabi and Hamid Hassan, as well as England and Surrey wicketkeeper Steven Davies.

Porterfield takes the positives as Ireland make exit

Ireland captain William Porterfield was left with mixed feelings after his side’s exit from the World Cup was confirmed with a 131-run defeat to South Africa.

The Irish, who produced the tournament’s first upset – a three-wicket win over England – nearly two weeks ago, saw a below-par batting performance undo what was an otherwise respectable performance with the ball.

Chasing 272, Ireland were all out for 141 as Morne Morkel and Robin Peterson grabbed three wickets each, and Jacques Kallis took two to condemn Ireland to defeat in the 34th over.

There may be questions asked of Ireland about letting their opponents fight back from a tight spot, when some disciplined bowling and tight fielding had left the Proteas at 117-5, but Porterfield said: “We started off pretty well. We got a couple of wickets up front. It’s always important to get wickets to peg them back. I thought we did that pretty much throughout.

“We were happy enough at half-time as chasing 270 wasn’t out of our reach. But it’s just that we lost wickets.”

A dead-rubber against Holland beckons on Friday but Porterfield remained pleased with Ireland’s performances throughout the tournament, which has seen them gain many admirers and has raised calls for them to be included in the next edition.

“We’ve shown a lot of competitive spirit,” he added.

“A lot of the games have come down to last 10 overs. We’ve put ourselves in winning positions, which is what we’ll take from this tournament.

“Today we lost a lot of wickets and were always behind. But the tournament has been good and we’ll take a lot of positives.”

JP Duminy was South Africa’s hero, smashing 99 off 103 balls, and captain Graeme Smith refused to let the initial setbacks mar a result that sees them progress to the quarter-final.

Smith said: “We put ourselves under pressure with some stupid run outs but the guys responded really well after that, especially JP who batted really well under pressure.”