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March 24, 2007 (Link to Scorecard)

England stormed into the Super Eights with a commanding 7-wicket win over Kenya at St Lucia. In a rain truncated game at the Beausejour Stadium, Ed Joyce and Kevin Pietersen came good for the English in a moderate chase of 178. England chased that down with as many as 10 overs to spare.

Steve Tikolo did the wrong thing in electing to set total in a shortened game and all his batsmen could do was to put up just 177 in 43 overs. Steve Tikolo was the only one making any sort of contribution, he made 76 from 97 balls with 8 fours. Jimmy Anderson, Freddie Flintoff and Paul Collingwood all of them took a couple of wickets each. In their reply, England lost Michael Vaughan and Ian Bell cheaply but that was all the Kenyans were going to achieve with the ball. Ed Joyce scored 75 from 90 with 9 fours and a six before he was clean bowled by Steve Tikolo's delivery that had come back with the arm. Joyce figured in a 103-run partnership with Petersen, who remained not out on 56 from 72 with 5 fours and a six. Collingwood was the other unbeaten batsman on 18. Joyce was the Man of the Match.

England have been fortunate enough to make it to the next round although they looked listless against the Kiwis in their opening game. Now that they are through to the next round, the players will have to motivate themselves to play at their best and who knows they will be a good challenging outfit.

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