A walk in the park for England after the long hold up

James Anderson produced the best World Cup bowling performance by an Englishman for 20 years as Nasser Hussain’s team beat the Netherla...

James Anderson produced the best World Cup bowling performance by an Englishman for 20 years as Nasser Hussain’s team beat the Netherlands by six wickets in their Group A game on Sunday.

The 20-year-old Anderson, bowling 10 overs on the reel, recorded career-best figures of four for 25 as the Dutch side were restricted to 142 for nine after being put in.

SCOREBOARD

Netherlands: L van Troost lbw Anderson 8, D Van Bunge c White b Anderson 4, N Statham lbw Flintoff 7, B Zuiderent c Hussain b Anderson 2, K van Noortwijk c Stewart b Anderson 0, T de Leede not out 58, J Kloppenburg c Knight b Blackwell 10, E Schiferli st Stewart b Blackwell 12, R Lefebvre b White 6, A Raja lbw White 2, J Smits not out 17; Extras (lb-10, w-4, nb-2): 16
Total (For 9 wkts, in 50 overs): 142
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-22, 3-31, 4-31, 5-31, 6-67, 7-90, 8-108, 9-112
Bowling: Caddick 10-4-19-0, Anderson 10-1-25-4, Flintoff 10-2-29-1, White 10-3-22-2, Blackwell 10-0-37-2

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England: M Trescothick b Schiferli 12, N Knight c Zuiderent b van Bunge 51, M Vaughan c de Leede b van Bunge 51, A Flintoff c Lefebvre b van Bunge 0, I Blackwell not out 22, P Collingwood not out 5; Extras (w-3): 3
Total (For 4 wkts, in 23.2 overs): 144
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-107, 3-107, 4-126
Bowling: Schiferli 5-0-33-1, Lefebvre 5-0-18-0, de Leede 4-0-29-0, Raja 5-0-34-0, van Bunge 3-0-16-3, Kloppenburg 1.2-0-14-0

But England’s opening performance in the tournament, delayed by their refusal to play in Zimbabwe, was still rusty, even though they won after just 23.2 overs of their reply.

They reduced the Dutch side to 31-5 but then failed to wrap up the innings, Tim de Leede leading the Dutch rearguard with an undefeated 58.

Hussain said: “We lacked a bit of a killer punch but we bowled with great discipline. All credit to the Dutch batsmen, they all got stuck in.

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“It was a good workout. To win in 23 overs against anyone is a good performance.”

Nick Knight and Michael Vaughan both made 51 in reply but Marcus Trescothick (12), Andrew Flintoff (0) and Knight (51) all threw away their wickets in the run chase.

It was England’s first game of the tournament after they refused to play Zimbabwe in Harare on Thursday because of security concerns. England were forced to forfeit that match.

Anderson was named man of the match. (Reuters)