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England's opening game of their South African tour ended in a convincing 8 wicket victory over a Nicky Oppenheimer XI featuring 5 Internationals.

After winning the toss, stand-in skipper Marcus Trescothick (one of the 8 players in the team who didn't feature in the Zimbabwean tour) put the hosts into bat in a game that was scheduled to be a 45 over a side affair.

Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison took the New Ball, and the run rate was slow in the early overs, as they found their rhythm immediately.

Hoggard struck first to remove Francois du Plessis for 1 in the 9th over, and that brought in the veteran former Zimbabwe all-rounder Neil Johnson, who proceeded to show exactly what his former side could have done with last week by hammering 4 sixes and 7 fours in his 74 from 58 balls, Simon Jones in particular conceding a lot of runs.

That was though the only bright spot for the home side as Harmison was supreme, and it was Hoggard who ended the innings of Johnson after rain had reduced the game to 39 overs a side.

Although Jean-Paul Duminy hit a run a ball unbeaten 25, the final score of 172-4 was below par, and even though Duckworth Lewis set the target to 185 from the 39 overs, it was still well within reach of an England top order looking to impress.

As it turned out, it was only really the openers Trescothick and Rob Key who got that chance, as they piled on 167 runs in under 30 overs to set up the victory in style.

Key in particular was brutal, hammering 5 sixes and 7 fours in his 87 from 85 balls as he made the most of his chance in the battle for the number 3 slot in the First Test.

To add to his cause, Mark Butcher made just 6 before giving Johnson a catch of the bowling of Charl Willoughby. By that stage however, the game was up, and Trescothick clinched it by hammering Willoughby for a six (his 3rd) as his side won with 21 balls and 8 wickets in hand.

Nicky Oppenheimer XI 172-4
Johnson 74(58), Hoggard 2-29(8), Harmison 1-8(7)
England XI 190-2
Key 87(85), Trescothick 85*(107)

Posted by Marc