England look to drain Canada dry

England won’t have too much time to dwell on its six-wicket defeat to New Zealand — it’s got to prepare for Canada.

England won’t have too much time to dwell on its six-wicket defeat to New Zealand — it’s got to prepare for Canada on Sunday.

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And that suits England captain Michael Vaughan just fine. “It’s a good thing we play again so soon,” Vaughan said after Friday’s loss to the Black Caps. “Bodies might be a little bit tired but it’s sometimes the best thing to get back on the horse.”

Canada might be the best opponent for a confidence booster. England will be concentrating on improving their batting. Only Kevin Pietersen (60) scored a half century. While spinners are expected to do well at the Beausejour Cricket Ground, it was the express pace of New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond (2-19) and the medium pace of Scott Styris (2-25) that undid England.

“We know the conditions here now,” Vaughan said. “We just need to make sure we improve our performance and make sure we come out on Sunday night with a victory.”

Canada have been working on their running between wickets, which Davison described as “embarrassing” against Kenya. The form of opening batsman Geoff Barnett, who hit 41 off 50 balls with nine boundaries against the Kenyans, will be the key for Canada .

Teams

England (from): Michael Vaughan, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravinder Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple, Andrew Flintoff, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Andrew Strauss.

Canada (from): John Davison, Ashish Bagai, Geoff Barnett, Umar Bhatti, Ian Billcliff, Desmond Chumney, Austin Codrington, George Codrington, Anderson Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Ashif Mulla, Henry Osinde, Qaiser Ali, Abdool Samad, Kevin Sandher.