Cricket World Cup 2007

Disciplinary problems done away with, England were made to work hard for their 51-run victory over Canada to open their World Cup account at the Beausejour Stadium, St. Lucia. Andrew Flintoff, England’s topmost all-rounder, had to sit out of this match and was also stripped off vice captaincy for breach of discipline.

England’s victory can be credited to some superb batting performances by opener Ed Joyce (66) and all-rounder Paul Collingwood (62 not out). The English bowlers also managed to strike early and did not let the Canadians induce another major upset of the Cricket World Cup 2007.

Batting first, England scored a total of 279 for 6, with almost all batsmen getting a good batting practice at the expense of Canada. The Canadian bowlers did take wickets, but were basically toothless in their attack. Paul Collingwood was the wrecker-in-chief and ensured that the scoreboard kept ticking. For Canada, the prime bowler was Sunil Dhaniram, who grabbed 3/41 in his quota of ten overs.

England’s bowling, on the other hand, was quite incisive, with Liam Plunkett claiming a Canadian wicket in the first over itself. Opener John Davison managed to stand up to England’s seamers, scoring a gritty 21 off 25 balls. James Anderson and Ravinder Bopara did not allow the Canadian middle order to settle down, with the only piece de resistance coming from Ashif Mulla who scored magnificent 58 runs in 60 balls.

Eventually, Canada could manage to score 228/7 in their quota of 50 overs, thus losing the game by 51 runs. For England, the pick of bowlers were Plunkett (2-46) and Bopara (2-43), who had also impressed earlier by making 29 quick runs in 30 balls. England and Canada will now play against Kenya and New Zealand respectively.

Brief Score: England 279-6 (Joyce 66, Collingwood 62*, Dhaniram 3-41) vs. Canada 228-7 (Mulla 58)
Results: England won by 51 runs
Man of the Match: Paul Collingwood

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Group C Points