GROS ISLET (St Lucia), March 19: England tried to made light of Andrew Flintoff's absence with a 51-run victory against Canada in their World Cup Group C match here on Sunday (also partially reported in Monday’s edition).

England made 279 for six after being sent in but, despite reducing Canada to 65 for four, were unable to bowl out the minnows without their pace-bowling all-rounder.

They were held up first by a fifth-wicket stand of 96 between Abdool Samad (36) and Ashif Mulla (58), who hit all-rounder Paul Collingwood for a six over the roof of the stand at deep mid-wicket.

Although both batsmen fell within the space of four balls, with the score on 161, Canada finished on 228 for seven – their best total at the World Cup in 11 matches after they'd made 202 against the West Indies at Centurion in 2003.

It was also 29 more than the 199 they managed four days ago in their seven-wicket opening Group C match thrashing by Kenya.

Desmond Chumney was 27 not out and George Codrington seven not out.

England had Canada in trouble at 22 for two after Liam Plunkett removed Geoff Barnett and Ashish Bagai.

Canada skipper John Davison, back in the opening slot where he made the fastest World Cup hundred, off 67 balls against the West Indies, at Centurion four years ago, made 21 off 25 balls before lofting James Anderson to Ian Bell on the cover boundary.Monty Panesar took one for 35 from 10 overs but Samad and Mulla were largely untroubled by the remainder of England's attack.

Samad was eventually lbw to Panesar before Mulla's 60-ball innings with one six and seven fours ended when he was stumped by wicket-keeper Paul Nixon off medium-pacer Ravi Bopara, Flintoff's replacement.

Flintoff was dropped for a ‘breach of team discipline’, the Lancashire ace one of several players fined for staying out until the early hours of the morning after England's six-wicket defeat by New Zealand in their opening match on Friday.