Embarrassment for England

It may sound surprising but England skipper Kevin Pietersen was not upset with the humiliating defeat at the hands of a local Mumbai side at the Brabourne Stadium on Monday. In fact, he was happy that the team came to know about its shortcomings ahead of their crucial one day international series against India starting this Friday.

The visitors, who easily won their first match on Sunday, had a tough time on Monday as they got a shocker from the Mumbai Cricket Association XI. England were handed a 124-run defeat in their second warm-up match.

Pietersen though said that too much should not be made out of this defeat. “It is only a practice game and only international match counts. We had good match practice. On Sunday we won but we lost this match. It’s good that we came to know our shortcomings before Friday’s encounter.”

Playing their second warm-up match at the picturesque Cricket Club of India, England made a mess of batting and bowling against a side full of youngsters. Earlier, bowling first the visitors conceded 222 runs from 50 overs with Mumbai one-drop Sushant Marathe scoring a patient 98-ball 65 runs with seven hits to the ropes.

The English bowlers were quite economical in their bowling but were unable to take wickets. Left-arm spinner Samit Patel was the most expensive bowler conceding 50 runs from 9 overs taking two wickets.

Later in their second innings, England batsmen floundered in chasing a modest total of 222 set by MCA XI. They struggled to find a foothold against the swing bowling of medium pacers Kshemal Waingankar, Rajesh Verma and Rahil Shaikh.