Gros Islet (St Lucia), March 19 (IANS-CMC) England kept their hopes of a Super Eight, second round berth alive with a 51-run win over Canada in their 2007 Cricket World Cup, Group C contest at the Beausejour Cricket Ground Sunday.
England, with a loss to New Zealand in their first match, were never fluent but rattled up 279 for six off their 50 overs, thanks to half-centuries from Ed Joyce and Paul Collingwood.
Canada ended on 228 for seven with Ashif Mulla top-scoring for Canada with an enterprising 58 off 60 balls, counting seven fours and one six.
The other Canadian batsmen could not score at a fast enough rate to dominate England's bowling attack, which was led by medium pacers, Ravi Bopara (2-43) and Liam Plunkett (2-46).
Asked to bat first after Canada won the toss, England got a century opening stand from captain Michael Vaughan and Ed Joyce, to get their innings up and running.
Vaughan scored his 45 from 64 balls with seven fours but missed out on a half-century when he drove a wide ball into the waiting hands of John Davison in the 20th over.
Joyce, whose 66 required 103 balls and contained four fours and one six, then added 52 for the second wicket with Ian Bell to keep England in control against the minnows.
Bell's 44-ball 28 ended when his miscued drive spiralled to George Codrington at short third man and seven runs later, Joyce was bowled by left arm spinner Sunil Dhaniram attempting a reverse sweep.
England lost their fourth wicket one run later when Kevin Pietersen (5) offered a tame caught and bowled chance which Dhaniram accepted off the last delivery of the same over.
England then benefited from a crucial 81-run fifth wicket stand between Collingwood who stroked a cameo, unbeaten 62 from just 48 balls and Bopara who hit an equally fluent 29 from 28 balls.
Bopara, brought into the side after all-rounder Andrew Flintoff was omitted for disciplinary reasons, was eventually bowled by off-spinner Codrington attempting a reverse sweep in the 47th over.
England also lost Jamie Dalrymple for two off ex-West Indies pacer Anderson Cummins before Paul Nixon smashed 23 from eight balls at the end to raise the tempo.
Dhaniram finished with three for 41 from his 10 overs to be the best of Canada's bowlers.
In pursuit of their target, Canada slipped to 65 for four in the 17th over before being rescued by a 96-run, fifth wicket partnership between Mulla and Abdool Samar, who scored 36 from 67 balls.
When both went with the score on 161, the Canadian innings went into another decline though Dhaniram's 33-ball 30 provided a late flourish.
Earlier, Canada had started disastrously losing Geoff Barnett with just eight runs on the board when he was bowled by Plunkett, offering no shot in the second over of the innings.
Plunkett also accounted for Ashish Bagai (6) who cut straight to Pietersen on the deep third man boundary with the score on 22 in the sixth over.
Captain Davison again failed to spark, caught on the extra cover boundary by Bell for 21 while Ian Billcliff got 20 before playing down the wrong line and being bowled off-stump by Bopara.
SCOREBOARD
Match No. 11, Canada vs. England, Group C, Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St. Lucia, March 18
England:
Ed Joyce b Dhaniram 66
Michael Vaughan c Davison b Samad 45
Ian Bell c Codrington b Dhaniram 28
Kevin Pietersen c & b Dhaniram 5
Paul Collingwood not out 62
Ravinder Bopara b Codrington 29
Jamie Dalrymple c Bagai b Cummins 2
Paul Nixon not out 23
Extras: (b 4, lb 2, w 8, nb 5) 19
Total: (for six wickets in 50 overs) 279
Fall of wickets: 1-101 (Vaughan, 19.6 overs), 2-153 (Bell, 33.2), 3-160 (Joyce, 35.1), 4-161 (Pietersen, 35.6), 5-242 (Bopara, 46.5), 6-245 (Dalrymple, 47.4)
Bowling:
Andy Cummins 7-0-58-1 (3nb, 7w)
Umar Bhatti 7.5-0-41-0
Johnson Davison 10-1-32-0 (1w)
Abdool Samad 5.1-0-31-1 (2nb)
George Codrington 10-0-70-1
Sunil Dhaniram 10-0-41-3
Canada:
Geoff Barnett b Plunkett 7
Johnson Davison c Bell b Anderson 21
Ashish Bagai c Pietersen b Plunkett 6
Ian Billcliff b Bopara 20
Abdool Samad lbw Panesar 36
Asif Mulla st Nixon b Bopara 58
Desmond Chumney not out 27
Sunil Dhaniram run out (Collingwood/Bopara) 30
George Codrington not out 7
Extras: (lb 2, w 11, nb 3) 16
Total: (for seven wickets in 50 overs) 228
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Barnett, 1.3 overs), 2-22 (Bagai, 5.1), 3-51 (Davison, 10.3), 4-65 (Billcliff, 16.6), 5-161 (Mulla, 34.4), 6-161 (Samad, 35.1), 7-217 (Dhaniram, 47.3)
Bowling:
James Anderson 10-1-40-1 (2w)
Liam Plunkett 9-0-46-2 (2w)
Monty Panesar 10-1-35-1
Ravinder Bopara 9-0-43-2 (2nb, 2w)
Paul Collingwood 9-0-41-0
Jamie Dalrymple 3-0-21-0 (1nb, 1w)
Result: England won by 21 runs
Man of the Match: Paul Collingwood (England)
Umpires: Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Peter Parker (Australia)
Third umpire: Asad Rauf (Pakistan)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)