Cricket: WE'VE HAD FLINTOFF.. NOW HERE'S A REAL TOFF; England v Sri Lanka, 2nd one-day international, The Oval, today, 10.45am Public schoolboy Dalrymple is England's shock one-day saviour.

Byline: Mike WALTERS

POSH geezers educated at Radley College and Oxford University will colonise Royal Ascot today guzzling champagne and wearing preposterous hats.

But Jamie Dalrymple somehow missed out on the annual assembly of Socialites Reunited and instead finds himself cast as the unlikely saviour of England's clueless oneday cricket team at The Oval.

The Middlesex allrounder faces Sri Lanka in the NatWest Series as one of the few England players who enhanced his reputation in Saturday's depressing 20-run defeat at Lord's.

Born in Nairobi, where safari tourists flock to see the big five - lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and Derek Pringle (another England all-rounder born in the Kenyan capital) - Dalrymple was joint top scorer with a brave 67.

Surprisingly for a history graduate, Dalrymple, who went to the same public school as his captain Andrew Strauss, claims he is "not a massive one for remembering lots of dates and statistics".

But if he goes on to establish himself as an international-class allrounder, the 25-year-old will remember his home debut on June 17, 2006 as the red-letter day on which he passed his World Cup audition.

Middlesex coach John Emburey says we should not be fooled by Dalrymple's modest pedigree - he was 110th in the first-class batting averages and 108th in the bowling last summer, but there is more to his game than a county nudger and nurdler.

Emburey said: "We didn't get to see Jamie's full repertoire on Saturday because he came in at 66-4 and his first priority was to dig England out of a large hole.

"But he has some big shots in the locker and is a lovely clean striker of the ball, especially when hitting through deep extra cover or midwicket.

"He bats at No.5 for us and, if there is an area for improvement, we would be looking for him to turn more of his 60s and 70s into big hundreds. But the talent is definitely there, and with the ball he's come on leaps and bounds.

"I'm not saying he couldn't bowl a hoop downhill before, but there were times when he wasn't necessarily first-choice when the captain needed to throw the ball to someone.

"He spent last winter at the academy, worked really hard on his bowling and now he doesn't just give us control when you want to shore up one end - he's a proper off-spinner and a potential matchwinner when pitches turn. And best of all, he's a fighter. Jamie won't go missing when the chips are down."

England are likely to name an unchanged side this morning, with Dalrymple batting at No.6, as they bid to redress the wayward bowling, woeful fielding and wasteful batting of the Lord's fiasco.

Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody could not resist a dig at England last night for chopping and changing their one-day side in search of the "magic formula".

The Aussie, a World Cup winner in 1999, said: "Most other countries tend to use the one-day game as an avenue to breed international cricketers, but there's a huge turnover in England's one-day squad and sometimes it's hard to establish yourself in that environment."

Gentlemen & players: Who's posh and who's not in England team..

GENTLEMEN

Andrew Strauss (Radley College & Durham University) Jamie Dalrymple (Radley College & St Peter's College, Oxford), Alex Loudon (Eton College & Durham University), Simon Jones (Millfield School, Somerset)

PLAYERS

Michael Vaughan (Silverdale Comprehensive, Sheffield), Marcus Trescothick (Sir Bernard Lovell School), Ian Bell (Princethorpe Comp), Paul Collingwood (Blackfyne Comp), Kevin Pietersen (Maritzburg College, Pietermaritzburg, S. Africa), Freddie Flintoff (Ribbleton Hall High, Preston), Geraint Jones (Harristown State High, Toowoomba, Australia), Liam Plunkett (Nunthorpe School, Teesside), Sajid Mahmood (North College, Bolton), Matthew Hoggard (Grangefield School, Pudsey) Steve Harmison (Ashington High School, Northumberland)

ONE-DAY LINE-UPS

England

Trescothick

Strauss (c)

Bell

Pietersen

Collingwood

Dalrymple

G Jones

Bresnan

Plunkett

Mahmood

Harmison

Sri Lanka

Jayasuriya

Tharanga

Sangakkara,

Jayawardene (c)

Dilshan

Arnold

Kapugedera

Vaas

Malinga

Fernando

Muralitharan

TV TIMES THE ONE-DAY DATES Live on Sky Sports 11 from 10.30am, play starts at 10.45am.

THE ONE-DAY DATES

June 20 at The Brit Oval

June 24 at Riverside

June 28 at Old Trafford

July 1 at Headingley

1st ODI won by Sri Lanka

CAPTION(S):

WORKING CLASS HEROES: Trescothick and Plunkett enjoy a kick about' EDUCATED SHOT: England's newest posh kid Jamie Dalrymple warms up for Sri Lanka