England suffer Black Caps defeat

England paid the price for failing to heed the mistakes made during their build-up to the World Cup and suffered a costly six-wicket defeat to New Zealand in their opening match.

A paltry 209 for seven having been put into bat in the heavyweight Group C encounter was not enough to test the Kiwis - who reached 210 for four with nine overs to spare.

Scott Styris' unbeaten 87, which included nine fours, provided the mainstay of the New Zealand innings as he intelligently forged a 53-run stand with Craig McMillan (27) and an unbroken 137-run partnership which sealed the game.

Captain Michael Vaughan had stressed the need to analyse and absorb the lessons learned from their warm-up defeat to Australia in St Vincent a week earlier when England let a promising position slip and suffered a comprehensive defeat.

England recovered from a shaky start to reach 133 for three with 15 overs remaining following an 81-run stand between Kevin Pietersen (60) and Paul Collingwood (31).

But despite a hard-hitting stand of 71 from the final 11 overs between Paul Nixon (42 not out) and Liam Plunkett (29no), the loss of four wickets for five runs in the middle order restricted England to a modest total.

Both sides entered the match knowing the outcome was key to their World Cup ambitions with points gained against fellow qualifiers being carried forward to the Super Eight stage.

With Vaughan chopping onto his own stumps, England needed a major partnership to put them on course for a major total, which was almost provided by Collingwood and Pietersen. But just like the match against Australia, when England lost six for 30 in 10 overs, any momentum gained was quickly lost by another middle order collapse.

Collingwood had already had one reprieve when Styris failed to claim a sharp return catch and two balls later he fell for a determined 31 when he edged an attempted late cut behind. New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming immediately recalled strike bowler Shane Bond to dramatic effect with Pietersen's superb innings.

Three balls after that Bond also claimed the scalp of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff. Jamie Dalrymple became Styris' second victim when he also edged behind and England were in danger of capitulating completely when Nixon and Plunkett came together at 138 for seven.