Filed under: Cricket, England Cricket, World Cup, ODIs
Warm-up games are exactly that. The opportunity to acclimatise before the real business of the World Cup begins.It is an chance for team director Andy Flower to experiment a little and knock around a few ideas in a reasonably competitive atmosphere - ahead of finalising his plans for the opening Group B game against Holland.
Of course, for those selected it is also the first audition for people to stick their hands up and announce they are strapped in and ready to go for the next seven weeks, if England last that long.
If you listened to Ian Bell, ahead of the meeting with Canada in Fatullah, this was not the equivalent of some beer-match. England wanted to hit the game "hard" and announce their intentions.
They also wanted to avoid the embarrassment of losing to a side who will be one of the whipping boys in Group A, the fact they did so with such a struggle and only 16 runs to spare will be of huge concern to Flower.
Unfortunately the only thing that hit them hard in Bangladesh was the realisation that they are a one-day side with too many batsmen out of form and two of the 15-man squad, Luke Wright and James Tredwell should be back in England at winter nets for their counties.
The disappointing trend that started with the 6-1 ODI defeat against Australia continued with Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and Bell managing a total of 17-runs between them.
Kevin Pietersen, given the chance to open the innings raced to 24 and a platform for the kind of innings he and England needed, only to be bowled by Khurram Chohan.
And the fifth-ball duck for Wright, who was then entrusted with only four overs in Canada's reply was a damning indictment of his lack of quality at the highest level, while Tredwell could manage a solitary wicket in eight modest overs.
Only half-centuries from the ever-reliable Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior, who underlined the argument that he should bat lower down the order helped England up to a modest total of 243, before Strauss had to endure the further embarrassment of seeing his middle-over bowlers being flayed all over Fatullah by Canada's number seven Rizwan Cheema.
At least Stuart Broad, who marked his return from an abdominal injury, with final figures of 5-39 and Ajmal Shahzad put their hands up in an opening burst which reduced Canada to 96-6, before Cheema's introduction.
In his previous 21 ODI's Cheema had managed a total of 623 runs and in eight innings against Scotland and Ireland he had mustered a paltry total of 79.
Michael Yardy, Wright, Tredwell and Collingwood were all unable to contain him as he plundered ten fours and five sixes in an incredible demonstration of power-hitting, before Broad had him caught by Bell one short of his top ODI score of 94 against Holland.
It was only when Broad returned for his tenth and final over and trapped Chohan lbw for 44 that England scraped over the line and avoided the kind of red-faced moment that could have derailed their tournament before it had even began.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/02/16/england-avoid-embarrassing-defeat-to-canada-but-problems-mount/
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