The newly formed England team headed off to teh World Cup without a single international game between them. In what was a shock decision the ECB announced that because of England's lack of international victories teh ywere to sack every player who ahd ever played for England and were going to start a clean slate.
England's first game was against Zimbabwe, a loss here could be extremely embarrasing for teh ECB and the coach's position might be under pressure.
The England team v ZImbabwe:
P Bowler *
A Swann
K Pieterson
I Bell
M Wagh
D Kenway +
I Blackwell
B Phillips
K Dean 1
M Saggers 2
J Brown
After getting off to a slow start, England managed to produce a decent total. Thnaks to a good opening stand of 70 between Swann and Bowler England were able to acclerate after about 30 overs, however too many wickets were lost too often from then onwards. The stars of the innings were Bowler (75), Bell (37) and Pieterson (31). England managed 216 All Out from 49.2 overs! A difficult toal to defend, but Englan'ds strength leis within its bowling.
ZImbabwe started quite slowly but didn't lsoe an early wicket thanks to soem tight bowling from Dean and Saggers. Brown came on and dismissed Carlisle and then Phillips dismissed A Flower for 2. After some consolidating by Zimbabwe Blackwell puleld England back into it taking 3/49 from his 10. Including dismissing the man of the match Grant Flower for 83. However Streak's 39 form 29 balls was enough to see ZImbabwe home by 3 wickets wiyth 10 balls to spare!
Bassano came into teh side to replace Wagh in what was an otherwise unchanged line-up for the match against teh Netherlands. Bowler lsot teh toss and the Netherlands opted to bat first.
The Netherlands recovered well after a shaky start to produce 7/195 with van oosterm hitting 53 and Abbas 38*. Blackwell was again teh star with the ball this time taking 3/40, while Phillips managed anotehr 2-for.
England easily made teh rusn with the loss of just 4 wickets. Bowler again the star batsman managing 48 this time. Pieterson, Bell, Bassano and Kenway all made 30's with Kenway and Bassano not out. Ian Blackwell was deserved man of the match for his bowling effort on a pitch that offered nothign to bowlers, lesat of all spinners.
England's next game was against another minor, this time Namibia. Bowler won the toss this time and didn't hestitate to bat despite teh cloudy conditions.
Despite Bowler managing another 50 (55 from 63) it was Pieterson and Bell who were the stand-outs this time. They combiend for a 132 run partnership with Pieterson smashing 76* from 80 balls and Bell 77 from 90. England ended up with 3/256 from their 50 overs.
Namibia made a respectable effort in getting to 212 thanks to the hard fought 72 from Keulder. However tyehy fell 44 runs short, Jason Brown the man of the match this time with figures of 4/30, blackwell managed an expensive 2/65 while Kevind dean took his first ODI wicket in figures of 2/39.
ENgland moved into second after that victory behind India. However the next game against Pakistan would be the biggest test yet.
England fielded an unchganed line-up while Bowler lost teh toss and Pakistan opted to bat.
More to come later...