Free spirit Bopara taking one step at a time

Ravi Bopara insists he has learnt from his mistakes and will not get carried away by his man-of-the-match performance against West Indies. Bopara's 4 for 10 was England's best figures in Twenty20 cricket as they crushed West Indies by ten wickets at The Oval, with openers Craig Kieswetter and Alex Hales chasing down the target of 125 with 26 balls to spare.

Bopara is flying high after his best international one-day performance against India, but the Essex allrounder is refusing to rest on his laurels, having paid the price for over-confidence back in 2009 when he struggled for form after three consecutive Test centuries against the West Indies. "I definitely feel more of an England player, especially over the last month," Bopara said. "This month has been very good for me and I played with quite a free spirit in the one-dayers against India. "I said to myself 'back yourself' and I'm glad it's come off. Long may it continue, but you can never bank on being around. I just want to take one step at a time and not get too far ahead of myself, because that happened when I got those three hundreds in a row. "I got a bit ahead of myself then, saying 'in next five games I want five more hundreds, I want to make it eight in a row'. When you get above your station that's when you fall quite hard."