England look increasingly unlikely to win the World Cup this year, but in Ravi Bopara they have unearthed a cricketer who might inspire them to better things in four years' time.
 A disconsolate Bopara after just failing to get England home |
At just 21, the Essex batsman, who also bowls some useful medium pace, seemed to have been given an impossible assignment on Wednesday night.
After the collective failures of the top six, Bopara and Paul Nixon were left needing 102 from 16 overs to beat Sri Lanka in Antigua.
They should not have got close, especially against a bowling attack stronger than any other country can currently field.
That they did owed much to the veteran Nixon, but it was Bopara that was still there in the final over.
A nonchalant flick for four off Dilhara Fernando, and a scampered two, left him on strike with just five runs wanted from three balls.
Unfortunately for him, and England, he couldn't quite make it as he was bowled off the last ball but was still named man of the match.
And his 52 off 53 balls prompted captain Michael Vaughan to predict he had "a big future in the game".
Bopara explained after the match he felt relaxed at the crease despite England's predicament.
"I don't get too emotional about the situation," he said.
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"I just went out there and tried to play normally. I'm gutted we didn't get over the line."
Bopara is an unusual England cricketer, but not for the fact that his parents emigrated from India's Punjab in the 1960s - just look at Monty Panesar.
It's more because he is super confident before a match and yet almost chillingly calm when the actual cricket takes place.
The recipe we have all too often seen from England players is bland platitudes before a game is played, before frenetic action on the field of play.
But Bopara is no show pony. Over the winter, he made a huge impression on National Academy Director Peter Moores.
Moores told BBC Sport in January: "All the coaches were really pleased with him in Perth because he knuckled down to concentrate on doing the really hard work.
"When he goes in he relaxes, watches the ball and just goes out there and plays.
"How he reacts to the international scene you never quite know. You watch people in training and make an assessment. I think Ravi is one of those characters who will go out there and rightly try and show off, and show what he's got."
| FIVE FACTS ABOUT RAVI His first victim in first-class cricket was Virender Sehwag Comes from the same London borough (Newham) as football heroes Martin Peters and Sir Geoff Hurst He is the most high-profile graduate of Capital Kids Cricket, which promotes the game in inner city schools Known to his team-mates as Puppy - because he is said to still have "puppy fat" One of his first coaches was Joe Hussain, father of former England captain Nasser |
Bopara's confidence in his own ability goes back to the final year of Brampton Primary school in Newham, in London's East End.
Needless to say, there was no cricket team there, but his teacher detected a passion for the sport and helped him set up a team.
It was Bopara who had to get the players together, however, and the team entered the Lord's Taverners Cup and won it. Its young captain was picked up by the intrepid scouts at Essex just a year later.
At Chelmsford, he has been fortunate to receive the guidance of Graham Gooch and Andy Flower, some of the best players of the 1980s and 1990s respectively.
But his wristy strokes through the leg-side reveal that he has also watched Sachin Tendulkar closely. The Indian maestro remains one of Bopara's heroes.
At 18, he first began to show his potential to a wider public, helping see off the touring Pakistanis with 46 from 52 balls and showing maturity to save a Championship match at Lord's by batting out time.
Flower once said of him: "He's a very proactive, up-and-at-'em type of player and because of that he seems to have the Midas touch."
Bopara, very much the surprise name in England's original World Cup squad, can thank Andrew Flintoff's night on the pedalo for gaining his first appearance of the tournament against Canada.
He has still played only five one-day internationals in all, but his rapid rise continues apace and an extended run in the England team surely beckons.
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