Colly stops the wobbles

Paul Collingwood bowled a superb 10 over spell as England ended up winning the Second One Day International comfortably.

The final margin of 161 runs flattered England somewhat, as for the first two thirds of their innings a combination of tight bowling and stupid dismissals (as typified by Solanki being stumped off a wide) saw them stutter along to 121-5 with only the relatively inexperienced Geraint Jones and Kevin Pietersen of the recognised batsmen left.

Ian Bell was first to go, cutting a Tinashe Panyangara ball straight into the hands of Dion Ebrahim. That was 13-1 after 5 overs, and when the other batting hero of Sunday, captain Michael Vaughan followed soon after, trapped leg before by Panyangara, England were struggling.

A stand of 64 for the 3rd wicket between Solanki and Andrew Strauss was ended by Solanki's stumping for 42 - a decent enough effort but in occupying 71 balls, he'd ensured that the middle order needed to accelerate if England were going to post a reasonable score.

Strauss and new man Pietersen were unable to do that though, as Gavin Ewing picked up a wicket with only his 8th ball in ODIs when Strauss was bowled, and when his replacement Collingwood nicked a ball from Stuart Matsikenyeri through to Tatenda Taibu, the hosts sensed there was a chance of a memorable upset.

That was as close as they came though, as Pietersen and Jones gradually got themselves in before unleashing a flurry of boundaries from over 39 onwards.

After 38 overs the score was a mere 133-5, but as the big hits came out, the bowlers lost their composure and after the next 7 overs had gone for 67, the final 5 were hammered for 63 - a total of 130 in 12 overs as Pietersen and Jones both registered their maiden ODI half centuries in an English record 6th wicket stand of 120 before Jones was caught on the boundary looking for his 3rd six.

Ashley Giles sensibly helped the on-fire Pietersen to have as much of the strike as possible in the final overs as England posted what appeared a very unlikely final score of 263-6.

In truth, the total was always going to be too much for such an inexperienced line up, but the start from James Anderson and Darren Gough in particular was especially poor, the pair conceding 7 wides and a no ball in the first 5 overs.

It took the introduction of Alex Wharf to slow the run rate, and after Anderson finally made the breakthrough in getting Matsikenyeri to mistime a pull straight to Vaughan, the Glamorgan seamer picked up 3 wickets in 13 balls and the home side were reduced from 40-0 to 53-4 and defeat was all but assured.

The captain Taibu made a battling 32, but Collingwood and Giles were extremely stingy, and a fine catch by Vaughan of the Durham allrounder sent Ebrahim back at 78-5. Next to fall was Elton Chigumbura, caught and bowled by Collingwood for 4 at 89-6.

Taibu then repeated the caught and bowled trick to Giles, the first of 3 wickets in 8 balls for no runs, and from 97-9, Prosper Utseya and Christopher Mpofu actually lasted for half an hour, although they only added 5 runs.

Gough was brought back, and although he improved his overall figures, he never really looked like picking up the wicket, and it was left to Wharf, replacing Collingwood after a superb spell of 10-4-16-3, to remove Mpofu for 2 and seal the match.

ENGLAND 263-6
Pietersen 77*(76), Jones 66(46), Panyangara 3-61(10)
ZIMBABWE 102
Wharf 4-24(6), Collingwood 3-16(10), Giles 2-12(7)

Posted by Marc