England's cricketers are using "pressure practice" sessions which they believe have helped them make a successful start to their tour of South Africa, where they lead the one-day international series 2-1 going into Friday's final match.
The sessions involve replicating pressure situations in the middle, the fast bowler Tim Bresnan explained yesterday. "We've been doing this for a couple of practice days now," he said. "It's a middle practice and we have two batters and 11 fielders, as in a normal game.
"We play scenarios which have been written on the chart before we go out. For seven overs we might have two wickets to play with and 54 runs needed to win, or whatever. It's resulted in a few ideas. We can play around a lot more than we can when we're going through a game, like bowling a spinner or bowling Colly [Paul Collingwood] in a power play, finding out what other roles people can do."
The sessions are planned by England's assistant coaches, Ottis Gibson and Richard Halsall. The head coach, Andy Flower, said: "Ottis and Richard have worked out some really good middle practices, or scenarios, where they put the guys under pressure, instead of just netting. That's helped the guys perhaps get used to playing under pressure, even if it's their own peer pressure."
Bresnan, who many thought would be a bit-part player on this tour, has emerged as one of England's most dependable bowlers. He said: "I don't feel established yet. But I do feel more relaxed about how it's going, more relaxed than I have been in previous times with England."
Bresnan made a harrowing one-day debut against Sri Lanka in 2006, when he was flayed by Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga.
"They lost respect for our bowling attack," he said. "We are stronger cricketers for experiencing that. Every time I bowled the ball and it didn't land in a little box it went for six."
He said he was still using the internet service Twitter, despite a colourful exchange with another user two months ago.
"Some bloke had a go and I had go back," Bresnan said. "That's how I was brought up. If some bloke punches, you're going to whack him back, aren't you? I was told it was a public site and you are going to get members of the public who will get disgruntled, so I've toned my tweeting down."
South Africa's selectors are worried about the form of the batsman JP Duminy, who has been troubled by the shorter ball. Since his successes in Australia last winter he has scored 189 runs in 10 one-day innings against serious opposition and a century against Zimbabwe.
Bresnan said the England fast bowlers were using shorter deliveries to unsettle him. "It's evolved on this tour," he said. "I think it might have been at Centurion. We tried him out with the shorter ball and he didn't seem to know where to go, so we thought, 'Let's keep doing that.' And in the last two games it's got him out. So that's perfect for us. We will keep doing that and see where he goes."
Mike Procter, South Africa's convener of national selectors, said yesterday: "I don't think it's too serious. JP is very level-headed and he's working hard on it."
South Africa's coach, Mickey Arthur, said: "JP's a quality player. He's very young but we see a huge future with him. The Australians tried the shorter ball too, earlier this year, and he overcame that.
"I don't think the short ball troubles him. But it's a matter of scoring off it. We've worked on quite a few options with him. He just needs one knock and he's away because he's genuine quality."
The all-rounder Jacques Kallis, who has missed the current series with a hip injury, was described as only a fifty-fifty chance for the first Test against England at Centurion in two weeks' time. However, Arthur said: "He will be fully fit for the second, third and fourth Tests."
