England stumble on the starting line

Cricket

DEREK PRINGLE

reports from Ahmedabad

New Zealand 239-6 England 228-9 (New Zealand win by 11 runs)

England's World Cup campaign began badly yesterday. New Zealand, inspired by a forceful century from their opening batsman Nathan Astle, were rarely in trouble and the eventual winning margin of 11 runs flattered England, who lacked cohesion and imagination as well as a safe pair of hands - four catches were put down.

In truth, the vultures were circling long before England's batting finally expired, chasing New Zealand's 239 - the highest one-day total at this venue. With sundry misfields and close range run-outs going begging, England's ground fielding was almost as sloppy as their catching, and right from the moment Michael Atherton curiously decided to field first, the scavengers rightly sensed something was ailing on the outfield below.

They were not wrong and once England, in their murky blue outfits, had allowed New Zealand to rattle up a breezy 64 in 15 overs, Atherton was never able to control the game. The Kiwis clearly surprised England, having worked out a game plan around their limitations. England, by contrast, have limitations because they have no game plan.

A computer simulation, which had England down as 60-run winners, was handed to Lee Germon, the New Zealand captain, before the match. Although he denied using it to motivate his team, its computations were so awry that it is clearly not related to Deep Blue, the recent conqueror of Garry Kasparov.

Although the result is not crucial to England's chances of qualifying for the knock-out stages, they badly needed to win it, if just to blow away the torpor that settled over them during their last fortnight in South Africa.

Unfortunately, with memories of that debacle still fresh, this loss and the manner of it will do little for their self-esteem. Rather, the frustrations and sense of helplessness are likely to come flooding back. For once, Atherton had no excuses. "Our catching clearly cost us the match," he said. "It is not an ideal start and although we have a lot of work to do on our fielding, I felt our bowling and batting could not be faulted that much and I believe the balance of the side was right for that surface."

Of course, it might have been different had Graham Thorpe not put down two slip catches in successive overs early off Cork and Martin. The first of these was Astle, and was particularly costly as he was on one at the time and still some way from finding his bearings.

When he did begin to locate the ball, Astle, who has spent the last two seasons with Raymond Illingworth's club, Farsley, in the Bradford league, hit the ball with crispness and aggression, striking both Gough and Martin for towering sixes.

Astle, 24, has only recently come on to the international scene, and although this is hardly a revelation, his application, after an aggressive start, showed the kind of mature responsibility England lack in their batting. New Zealand may come to cherish him during the World Cup.

Apart from Stephen Fleming who made 28 and Chris Cairns who made a quickfire 36, it was a lone effort by Astle, who watched the rest of his team-mates make a pig's ear of the last 10 overs, which yielded just 43 runs.

One reason may be that by using only one ball per innings as opposed to two in the previous World Cup, the ball becomes softer and therefore more difficult to time. There again, England bowled well in the latter stages, and good spells from Richard Illingworth, Cork and Hick made up for Gough and Martin's earlier extravagances.

When England batted, only Graeme Hick ever came to terms with the slow pitch or the mesmeric seam bowling of Gavin Larsen and Chris Harris. As they did on New Zealand's turgid pitches during the last World Cup, the near paceless duo throttled the life out of the middle-order just when they most needed to accelerate. Four wickets fell in the space of eight overs for 41 runs.

However, while Hick remained, with Atherton as his runner after injuring a knee in the field, England had an even chance, as with 15 overs to go and seven wickets in hand, they needed 100 runs.

It was not to be and Fairbrother, pushing firmly to Roger Twose's right hand at short extra-cover, set off for a quick single. Atherton hesitated once the ball had been half stopped by the diving Twose, who recovered quickly to throw the ball to his wicketkeeper, and the bails were whipped off as England's captain despairingly lunged for the line.

What Hick made of it all from his perfect view at short leg is unclear. Fortunately for his team-mates he is an impassive man and his injury is not thought to be too serious.

Just as well, for with Atherton out of form - he was bowled leg stump by Nash with a slow, swinging full toss - England's lauded batting looks brittle and their chances of a semi-final berth slim.

Scoreboard

(England won toss)

NEW ZEALAND

C M Spearman c and b Cork 5

(20 min, 16 balls)

N J Astle c Hick b Martin 101

(171 min, 132 balls, 8 fours, 2 sixes)

S P Fleming c Thorpe b Hick 28

(73 min, 47 balls, 3 fours)

R G Twose c Thorpe b Hick 17

(27 min, 26 balls, 1 four)

C L Cairns c Cork b Illingworth 36

(35 min, 30 balls, 4 fours, 1 six)

C Z Harris run out (White-Russell) TV replay 10

(23 min, 16 balls, 1 four)

S A Thomson not out 17

(27 min, 23 balls, 1 four)

*L K Germon not out 13

(16 min, 12 balls)

Extras (b4, lb2, w4, nb2) 12

Total (for 6, 199 min, 50 overs) 239

Fall: 1-12 (Spearman), 2-108 (Fleming), 3-141 (Twose), 4-196 (Cairns), 5-204 (Astle), 6-212 (Harris).

Did not bat: D J Nash, G R Larsen, D K Morrison.

Bowling: Cork 10-1-36-1 (nb1,w1) (6-1-15-1, 2-0-11-0, 2-0-10-0); Martin 6-0-37-1 (3-0-25-0, 3-0-12-1); Gough 10-0-63-0 (5-0-26-0, 3-0-20-0, 2- 0-17-0); Illingworth 10-1-31-1 (7-1-27-0, 3-0-4-0), Hick 9-0-45-2 (w3); White 5-0-21-0 (nb1) (one spell each).

Progress: 50: 48 min, 71 balls. 100: 85 min, 126 balls. 150: 130 min, 204 balls. 200: 165 min, 252 balls.

Astle's 50: 63 min, 65 balls, 6 fours, 2 sixes. 100: 163 min, 126 balls, 8 fours, 2 sixes.

ENGLAND

*M A Atherton b Nash 1

(5 min, 3 balls)

A J Stewart c and b Harris 34

(96 min, 72 balls, 3 fours)

G A Hick run out (Twose-Germon) TV replay 85

(136 min, 101 balls, 9 fours)

G P Thorpe b Larsen 9

(24 min, 21 balls)

N H Fairbrother b Morrison 36

(57 min, 46 balls, 1 four)

R C Russell c Morrison b Larsen 2

(9 min, 9 balls)

C White c Cairns b Thomson 13

(18 min, 12 balls, 1 six)

D G Cork c Germon b Nash 19

(21 min, 11 balls, 2 fours, 1 six)

D Gough not out 15

(31 min, 17 balls)

P J Martin c Cairns b Nash 3

(9 min, 7 balls)

R K Illingworth not out 3

(6 min, 4 balls)

Extras (b1, lb4, w1, nb2) 8

Total (for 9, 211 min, 50 overs) 228

Fall: 1-1 (Atherton), 2-100 (Stewart), 3-123 (Thorpe), 4-144 (Hick), 5-151 (Russell), 6-180 (White), 7-185 (Fairbrother), 8-210 (Cork), 9-222 (Martin).

Bowling: Morrison 8-0-38-1 (nb1,w1) (4-0-13-0, 4-0-25-1); Nash 7-1-26- 3 (nb1) (5-1-14-1, 2-0-12-2); Cairns 4-0-24-0 (one spell); Larsen 10-1- 33-2 (5-1-19-0, 5-0-14-2); Thomson 10-0-51-1 (7-0-32-0, 3-0-19-1); Harris 9-0-45-1 (nb1) (7-0-29-1, 2-0-16-0); Astle 2-0-6-0 (one spell).

Progress: 50: 55 min, 84 balls. 100: 96 min, 144 balls. 150: 151 min, 229 balls. 200: 186 min, 274 balls.

Hick's 50: 77 min, 59 balls, 7 fours.

Umpires: B C Cooray (Sri Lanka) and S G Randell (Australia). TV replay umpire: S Tovey (Netherlands). Match referee: Mansur Ali Khan (formerly Nawab of Pataudi).

Man of the match: N J Astle.

World Cup update

YESTERDAY

GROUP B: New Zealand bt England by 11 runs. New Zealand 239 for 6; England 228 for 9 (at Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Ahmedabad).

TODAY

GROUP B: South Africa v United Arab Emirates (at Stadium, Rawalpindi, Pakistan). TV: Sky Sports: Live 03.45-12.00.

TOMORROW

Group A: West Indies v Zimbabwe (at Lal Bahadur Shastri stafium, Hyderabad, India). TV: Sky Sports: Live 08.55-17.00.