Gooch wants no let-up from England

England batting coach Graham Gooch is confident Alastair Cook’s side won’t take things easy against Australia in the fifth and final one-day international at Old Trafford here yesterday. England, at 3-0 up, have already won this series and are on a run of nine successive wins in one-day internationals. Although a washed out encounter at Edgbaston last week means they can no longer replace Australia as the world’s top ranked side in 50-over cricket this campaign, former England captain Gooch said the chance to defeat their arch-rivals 4-0 was incentive enough for the hosts. “They have to be delighted with 3-0 but there’s one match to go yet and any match against Australia is a special occasion and certainly I think the players will be looking forward to that game and doing their utmost to make it 4-0,” Gooch told Sky Sports here on Monday. “It’s always a special thing when Australia visit these shores, they are the big series, whether it’s the Ashes or one-day cricket, there’s a great rivalry between the two sides,” added Gooch, who experienced his fair share of heartache against the Aussies, starting with a ‘pair’ on his Test debut back in 1975. Gooch, a mentor to Cook as his fellow opening batsman rose through the ranks at Essex, said England would have been delighted by a series where wins by 15 runs and six wickets at Lord’s and The Oval respectively were followed by an eight-wicket thrashing of Australia at the Riverside on Saturday. “I think England have got to be happy with the way they have played, they have been very professional, gone about their work in a very positive way and they have taken their cricket to the Australians and the team have obviously got the results,” said Gooch. And, in what has become something of a mantra for all the England hierarchy, Gooch said the team’s focus was not on the outcome of Tuesday’s clash but the means that would deliver them another victory.   “I don’t think they are looking at it as a 4-0 whitewash, you just want to go out and win every match,” said Gooch, captain of an England team that won 11 successive completed one-day matches before losing the 1992 World Cup final. “You try and break it down into smaller components, a series, one match at a time, one innings at a time, one over at a time...and certainly the players have got those disciplines right. “I think it’s fair to say their (England’s) cricket has been up to a standard that they’d like to achieve every time they go onto the field, so I think this last match at Old Trafford is an important game, they don’t want to lose to Australia at any time in any match.” South Africa’s Boucher in injury scare London: South Africa wicket-keeper Mark Boucher left the field with an eye injury during the opening day of the Proteas’ tour match against English county side Somerset at Taunton yesterday. On the first day of competitive action of South Africa’s tour of England, the 35-year-old Boucher was hit in the face after lunch when a bail ricocheted off the stumps as Gemaal Hussain was bowled by Imran Tahir. Boucher, as would be expected for leg-spinner Tahir, was standing up to the stumps, but he was wearing a cap rather than a helmet in this two-day match. After treatment on the field for a cut, he was helped off and taken to hospital. His place behind the stumps was taken by AB de Villiers, who has kept wicket in international matches for South Africa. Former England wicket-keeper Paul Downton eventually had to retire after he too was hit in the face by a bail while standing up to the stumps in 1990. Boucher has been a mainstay of the South Africa side for over a decade, appearing in 147 Tests and becoming the first wicket-keeper to take 500 catches in Test cricket, where he has also scored five hundreds with the bat. After this fixture, South Africa have a three-day warm-up match against Kent before the first of a three-Test series against England starts at The Oval on July 19, with the tourists looking to displace their hosts as the world’s number one side in the five-day format.