England begin with a resounding 8-wicket victory against Americas

England began the defense of their 1998 World Cup title with a resounding eight-wicket victory against a disappointing Americas side. After the late start the English dismissed the Americas for a paltry 105 and then scored the required runs in just 19.1 overs.

The highlight of the day was the batting of positive batting of the English openers, Ian Bell and Michael Carberry. Right from the start of the innings they were willing to punish anything loose. Ian Bell in particular was impressive. One felt whilst watching him that you were catching a glimpse of the future. His batting style is simplicity personified. Like all good batsmen he makes batting look easy, with precise shot selection and crisp hitting, the bat appearing to be a mere extension of his arms. His dismissal, out stumped for 41, came as a shock for the American bowlers had looked incapable of deceiving him.

The England coach was clearly pleased with the batting of the openers when asked afterwards about England's performance. "The highlight of the day was the batting of Ian Bell, playing the way that we know he can play, by taking the attack to the bowlers and playing some inspiring shots. I'm pretty happy with where we are at the moment, but we have to iron out a few problems with the bowlers, as we gave away far too many extras."

He didn't waste any time in doing this and had the players out practising in the middle straight after the match finished. The move was sensible in due of the fact that England gave away 25 extras and the bowlers appeared short of full match rhythm. Understandable in a tour that has been plagued by poor weather.

The Americas, who include players from Bermuda, the USA, Canada and Argentina, were outplayed right from the first over, when Warren bowled C. Foggo off a no ball. They didn't have to wait long though for their first wicket of the tournament as L. Minor was bowled off his inside edge off Murtagh's second ball. Murtagh had the best figures of the day, 4-33, despite a tendency to over pitch in his early overs.

A.Bagai, the Americas best batsmen, briefly threatened to play a big innings. In one over off Murtagh he hit three boundaries through the legside, two of which were textbook on drives. Unfortunately for him Murtagh gained his revenge when the athletic Cardus took a fine diving catch, low to his right in the covers. When Z. Surkari was out caught by Bridge off the bowling Phillips, any chance of a reasonable Americas score had evaporated.

When it was the Americas time to field the bowlers were forced to attack from the word go. This resulted in a number of poor deliveries that were confidently put away by the Englishmen. Unfortunately for the bowlers their batsmen had squandered a chance to bat first on what was a pretty good wicket.

Certainly the Americas coach, Oumadat Dipchand was disappointed by the performance of his batsmen. "We didn't apply ourselves. Its not that we can't play at this level its just that we threw the wickets away stupidly. We hope that in the next game the batsmen will apply themselves and work to the game plan." Their next game will be against Zimbabwe who lost to the West Indies.

England faces the West Indies on Thursday and will have to up their game significantly if they are to win this crucial match. The West Indies have some quick bowlers in their side and have been scoring runs in Sri Lanka so far.