England cruise to warm-up win

Jade Dernbach

Published: 1:15pm, 10th February 2012
Updated: 7:23am, 11th February 2012

England coasted to a seven-wicket 'victory' in a bizarre mis-match against the Lions at the Zayed Stadium.

The warm-up fixture lost its List A status once England's second string failed to reach a competitive total, bowled out for 96 by Jade Dernbach (three for 21) and Steven Finn (three for 28) in only 28.3 overs on a fair pitch.

Captains and coaches on either side decided a 'chase' of less than a hundred in 50 overs would serve little purpose for England's preparations to play Pakistan in a one-day international series, and therefore simply agreed an arbitrary target of 230.

Kevin Pietersen's return to the top of the order began adequately - with a fluent 41, until he disappointingly edged Chris Woakes behind - and Alastair Cook's 76-ball 50 paved the way for Jonathan Trott (75no) to complete formalities in contrived circumstances.

Cook went with 80 still needed, stumped as he tried in vain to dominate Danny Briggs' left-arm spin. But Trott did not need to stray from his trusted methods to add another half-century from 64 balls, and Ravi Bopara had a chance to become accustomed to batting in the number four position Pietersen has made his own for so long.

Dernbach took first sitting as England had the Lions batsmen for breakfast in the desert. He almost instantly had three wickets for two runs, and the Lions never even hinted at a significant recovery.

Only captain James Taylor, who chose to bat first despite the early start, all-rounder Woakes and number 11 Jack Brooks managed double-figures in a binary scorecard featuring four noughts. Dernbach and Finn proved lethal with the new ball, reducing the Lions to 14 for four.

Dernbach claimed Alex Hales for a golden duck with his first delivery. Joe Root was pinned lbw on the crease by Dernbach - whose next victim was James Vince, pulling aerially and well-caught by Samit Patel at midwicket. Finn accounted for a reluctant Jonny Bairstow as he went caught-behind via an apparent inside edge on a ball that snaked back into him.

Taylor decided a counter-attack was in order, and he soon had more than half his team's paltry total. But Moeen Ali was unable to keep him company for long, edging an attempted drive off Graeme Swann to slip, and Taylor went too to an outside edge behind off Tim Bresnan.

Swann had Scott Borthwick lbw pushing forward to an off-break from round the wicket - and it was therefore thanks only to top-scorer Woakes and a last-wicket stand of 27, the highest of the innings, that England were kept waiting for long.