England thumped by Kiwis
Vaughan will need to be at his skippering best to save the match
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Friday, 16, Mar 2007 10:09
England crashed to a six-wicket defeat against New Zealand in their opening World Cup game in St Lucia.
Michael Vaughan's side made just 209-7 from their 50 overs with a number of batsmen guilty of giving away their wicket.
Kevin Pietersen top-scored with 60 while Paul Nixon made an unbeaten 40 as England scrambled towards a competitive target.
In reply, Scott Styris hit an unbeaten 87 to steer the Black Caps to victory with nine overs to spare.
Styris shared an unbeaten stand of 138 with all-rounder Jacob Oram (63) after England had reduced the Kiwis to 72-4.
Having been put into bat by Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming, England lost Ed Joyce for a duck to the first legitimate ball of the innings.
And worse was to come as first Ian Bell (5) and Michael Vaughan (26) departed early on, leaving England reeling at 52-3.
Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood then set about consolidating after the rocky start and went some way to ensuring England batted through their 50 overs.
Having put on 81 runs they appeared to have achieved that feat but another four quick wickets soon ended any hopes of a complete recovery from the poor start.
After Collingwood (31) fell off the bowling of Scott Styris, Shane Bond removed both Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff for a golden duck in his first over. And when Styris got Jamie Dalrymple out for just three, England were staring down the barrel on 138-7.
An unexpected unbeaten 71-run partnership between Paul Nixon (42 not out) and Liam Plunkett (29 not out) from the final 11.4 overs brought the innings to a positive close, however, allowing the Barmy Army to retain hope that the Black Caps' easy victory would not be so straightforward after all.
England made a positive start with the new ball to remove three Kiwi batsmen in the first five overs.
Dangerman Lou Vincent edged a delivery to Nixon off the bowling of James Anderson for a duck.
Ross Taylor also went without scoring after a sensational one-handed catch in the slips from Flintoff from an inswinging delivery by Plunkett.
Skipper Fleming then skied a short ball from Anderson to leave Joyce with a routine catch to leave the Kiwis on 19-3.
Craig McMillan made 27 off 34 balls before a loose shot off the bowling of Monty Panesar was caught by Dalrymple in the deep.
But England's bowlers toiled as Styris hit nine boundaries while Oram made his 63 off 83 balls.
Plunkett was expensive with 1-43 from seven overs while Dalrymple was whacked for 29 from four overs.
The dire performances of England's batsmen gives coach Duncan Fletcher plenty to think about ahead of the game with Canada on Sunday in St Lucia.