Mascarenhas hopes to inspire England to series triumph

The tourists looked set for a convincing one-day series defeat after Friday's humiliating eight-wicket loss at the Kensington Oval, where they were dismissed for just 117 before West Indies romped to victory in 14.4 overs.

Hampshire all-rounder Mascarenhas' fortunes were also at a low ebb as he was hammered for 24 in his only over by Chris Gayle, only three matches after forcing his way back into England's one-day plans.

But just 48 hours later Mascarenhas dusted himself down and played a key role in England's nine-wicket win at the same venue, bowling with accuracy and skill to claim three for 26 from his 10 overs to set up Friday's series decider in St Lucia.

It was an amazing reversal of fortunes for 31-year-old Mascarenhas, whose England chances appeared to have gone after he was overlooked for last summer's home series against South Africa and the tour to India before Christmas.

"That's just the game of cricket," enthused Mascarenhas, who was born in London but brought up in Australia. "Chris Gayle is an amazing player as he showed again yesterday and I was fortunate enough not to have to bowl to him.

"I just keep trying to do what I do best, put the ball on the spot, change the pace a little bit and hopefully pick up a few wickets and not go for many runs.

"One day you can go for a few and the next day you can get three for 20, that's just how it is. To be honest, I didn't actually do anything different in the two games.

"If you haven't already been hit for 24 or 30 in an over or whatever it is, at some stage in your career you're going to get hit for that - that's just what happens as a bowler.

"I don't think too many guys really get down about going for a few runs. It's going to happen and you're going to come out better for it anyway."

The same applies to the England team as a whole, who reacted to Friday's hammering by cancelling the day off planned for the following day and instead returned to the Kensington Oval for a practice session and team meeting.

The hardline approach worked. England exploited a favourable Duckworth-Lewis target to cruise home with nine balls to spare.

Now they believe they can take that momentum into Friday's decider at the Beausejour Stadium.

"It was a pretty humiliating loss (on Friday), we got absolutely pumped," admitted Mascarenhas. "As professional sportsmen no one ever wants to lose, we're desperate to win every game and to lose like that is pretty embarrassing.

"Everyone was very happy at turning it around in a huge way, it was a pretty convincing win. We've shown what we can do, we've just got to keep repeating that.

"It hasn't been the best of winters for the England cricket team as yet, but we've got a really huge chance next Friday to turn that right around and come away with a series win in the West Indies which would be a great effort."

England travelled from Barbados to St Lucia overnight and will follow a similar routine to the preparation for their back-to-back matches at the Kensington Oval, which will involve fitness training tomorrow (Tuesday) before practising at the ground on Wednesday and Thursday.

"We've got four or five days now to get our heads around what's required in the next game," added Mascarenhas.

"There might be different conditions and all those sorts of things are a factor, but we'll go into that game with a lot of confidence knowing we're up and we can beat these guys.

"If we play our game we can beat them, but we need to play our game - we can't play anybody else's. If we play to our strengths we can go out there and beat the West Indies on their home turf."

The tourists are monitoring Kevin Pietersen, who limped out of Sunday's victory with a back spasm, while all-rounder Andrew Flintoff will be assessed over the next two days after injuring his left thumb in the field.

An ultra-sound at the ground confirmed Flintoff had not suffered a fracture but he may be sent for a further scan if his condition does not improve.