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| March 18, 2007 | Sunday | Safar 28, 1428 |
England in no mood to take Canada lightly
GROS ISLET (St Lucia), March 17: England captain Michael Vaughan insisted there was no question of giving everyone a game against minnows Canada on Sunday just for the sake of it after his side's World Cup campaign got off to a losing start with a six-wicket defeat against New Zealand.England and New Zealand are favourites to qualify from a group also featuring Kenya.
Assuming both Test sides do go through, New Zealand will now carry forward two points into the second phase, Super Eight stage.
Vaughan's men were held to a modest 209 for seven, which owed much to an unbroken stand of 71 between Paul Nixon (42 not out) and Liam Plunkett (29 not out) after a middle-order collapse saw England slump from 133 for three to 138 for seven.
In reply, New Zealand, who wobbled at 19 for three, finished on 210 for four with Scott Styris 87 not out and Jacob Oram 63 not out.
Even though Canada went down to a seven wicket thrashing by Kenya on Wednesday, Vaughan said England couldn't afford to take them lightly.
“It's a good thing we play again so soon. Bodies might be a little bit tired but it's sometimes the best thing to get back on the horse and play,” said Vaughan.
“We know the conditions here now. We just need to make sure we improve our performance and make sure we come out on Sunday night with a victory.
He added: “We'll certainly be picking what we feel is the best XI to beat Canada. There'll be no thought of playing players just to get practice. We need to win the game and make sure we get our World Cup campaign off and running.”
But despite Friday's defeat, the Vaughan insisted it was too soon to write off England's chances.
“How significant this is only time will tell. It's not a great start and we have to make sure we win the next two games to get into the Super Eights. But it's certainly not the end of our tournament by a long way.”And there were words of consolation from New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming.
“England are a good side. They'll go alright at this World Cup.”
New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond rocked England with two wickets in four balls as he dismissed top-scorer Kevin Pietersen, who made 60 on his World Cup debut, and Andrew Flintoff (nought) in quick succession.
Not for the first time, an England batsman failed to press on to a big score when well set.
Although England thanks to pacemen James Anderson and Plunkett, made a blistering start in the field they ran out of runs in a match where New Zealand won with nine overs to spare.
“We didn't get a player to an 80 or a hundred when we know that if we do that we will post a decent total,” said Vaughan, who looked in good touch before playing on to James Franklin for 26.
“In that position of 130-odd for three with 17 overs left, we should have played a lot better, got a lot more and and put them under a lot more pressure.”Teams (from):
ENGLAND: Ed Joyce, Michael Vaughan (captain), Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Jamie Dalrymple, Paul Nixon, Liam Plunkett, James Anderson, Monty Panesar, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Ravi Bopara, Andrew Strauss
CANADA: John Davison (captain), Ashish Bagai, Geoffrey Barnett, Umar Bhatti, Ian Billcliff, Desmond Chumney, Austin Codrington, George Codrington, Anderson Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Ashif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad, Kevin Sandher, Qaiser Ali
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Peter Parker (Australia).
TV umpire: Asad Rauf (Pakistan).
Reserve umpire: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa).
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand).—AFP
Match starts at 6:30pm
Expected weather: 30 degrees Centigrade (85 degrees Fahrenheit), humid and cloudy, risk of showers.
Pitch: Early pace and bounce but flattening out as game progresses.
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