Cricket: Chris Woakes keeps feet on the ground

The 21-year-old stole the headlines on his first night in the England spotlight as he hit a single from the final ball of a tense match to seal a record eighth consecutive Twenty20 win by a single wicket.

Woakes' unbeaten 19 from 15 balls steered England home when others around him lost their composure in a late- innings collapse that had threatened defeat. But Woakes' calmness under pressure, plus an impressive bowling display that crucially helped frustrate Australia's late hitting, was impressive enough to leave him fielding questions about the possibility of a World Cup call-up.

Time would seemingly be against him, however, with the final 15-man squads due to be named next Wednesday and the right-armer admitted he was only focusing on trying to earn selection for today's final Twenty20 in Melbourne.

"At the minute I am just concentrating on the game tomorrow," he said last night. "I can't look too far ahead, there's obviously guys who are out injured at the moment who might be coming back.

"The competition for places in the side is very high so it keeps you on your toes. I'll try to keep doing what I'm doing and, hopefully, I'll be selected for the next game.

"Before Christmas I was only with the academy out here in Australia - so anything that might come in the future is just an added bonus."

Woakes' debut display was also highlighted by his towering six off a short ball from Australia quick Shaun Tait, one of only three bowlers to have been clocked at a speed above 100mph.

Woakes delivered the blow from just the fourth ball of his international career, and revealed he had been expecting Tait to pitch short after the pair exchanged words earlier in the over.

"Obviously he is one of the quickest bowlers in the world so I was just trying to watch the ball out of the hand," he said. "I was just trying to get bat on ball so there wasn't much going through my mind apart from that to be honest with you. I was expecting a shorter one at some stage though because he had been giving me a bit of lip."

Woakes denied, however, the exchange had over-stepped the boundaries of sportsmanship, adding: "That's just Australia versus England. There was a bit of chat in the middle. No-one stepped over the line."

England can seal the series today, with a big crowd likely to be in attendance in Melbourne, and Australia batsman Aaron Finch hopes forecast showers will not rain on his parade as he prepares to savour a first hometown international experience at the MCG.

"Obviously I'm very excited at the prospect (of playing at the MCG]," said the 24-year-old Victorian. "Hopefully the weather stays away and we can get a game in. With 50 or 60,000 people there it would be a fantastic experience to play in front of that many people on my home ground."Finch debuted with a composed 15 not out off 14 deliveries in Adelaide and the right-handed batsman believes the lessons learned from the narrow defeat will spur the home side to greater heights in Melbourne.

"I don't think we played all that well during the whole game. To come up that close was promising - a lot can be taken out of that," Finch said.

"Unfortunately we couldn't come away with the points, but hopefully on Friday night we can."