Strauss hails duo

Two gritty batsmen from different ends of the experience spectrum have put England 1-0 up against South Africa - and captain Andrew Strauss is delighted to have both in his team.

Paul Collingwood marked his England record 171st one-day international cap with his fifth hundred - an unbeaten 105 - and Jonathan Trott, his partner in a 162-run stand, added 87 in a seven-wicket win with four overs to spare at Centurion.

Collingwood described his "perfect and proud" day - and Strauss underlined the well-deserved achievement hailing the Twenty20 skipper as "always dangerous" while labelling Trott as in "exceptional" form.

"Whenever there is a player with his temperament, they are always dangerous," Strauss said of Collingwood.

"They always like the difficult situations - and Colly's played a lot of his best innings for England when our backs have been against the wall. As an opponent, I know you worry about players like that."

Trott, meanwhile, put in a major contribution on only his second ODI appearance.

"Trotty's form on this tour has been exceptional," added Strauss. "We had no worries about him opening the batting - he's done it a lot for Warwickshire and is a quality player all round.

"He's a very determined character - there's no doubt about that.

"He loves batting, genuinely loves it - and allied to that, he's got a very solid technique which is well-suited to the international game.

"We don't want to put too much pressure on him. It is very early in his career, and he's shown he's got great ability - but we shouldn't expect great things of him every time he goes into bat."