Alex Hales is pleased to have played his part as England continued its good form going into the ICC World Twenty20 2012 with victory over Australia on Monday (September 17).

The opener scored 52 from 38 balls as England ran out winners by nine runs in a closely fought encounter in Colombo.

The ICC World T20 holders arrived in Sri Lanka on the back of a win in its last T20I against South Africa back in England, and is in good shape as the competition approaches.

Hales said: “It’s a great way to start the warm-up to this tournament, and we also had that good win against South Africa too (in Birmingham last week). “So we’re feeling pretty confident heading into this tournament. It adds to the confidence in the changing room, which is already pretty good.”

The right-hander was happy to have contributed his team’s highest score with Luke Wright (35) and Eoin Morgan (30) also amongst the runs as England’s 172-6 proved too much for their rival.

Hales said: “It’s nice to get some runs under your belt in the first warm-up game. It was a good team performance, and Wrighty and Morgs also played their part.

“It is a very different challenge to what we’re used to in England. But I think the deck was a lot better than everyone expected. It came on to the bat nicely, but I think 170 was a pretty good score out there.”