England cruised to a nine-wicket victory in their first World Cup warm-up match at Sydney Cricket Ground. There were five wickets for the amazing Chris Woakes.
West Indies had a poor start to their batting innings, losing both Chris Gayle and Darren Bravo for ducks in Chris Woakes' opening over to leave them trailing 1-2, as they struggled to 35-4. Dwayne Smith later edged Woakes to second slip, while Samuels and Denesh Ramdin were bowled out trying to play down the wrong line. Only Lendl Simmons held England up by hitting a knock of 45, with only three of his team-mates reaching double figures.
Simmons, who was watched by his uncle Phil, the coach of the Ireland team, was also caught out by the brilliant Woakes.
Jonathan Carter and Jason Holder were bowled out with first ballers by James Tredwell and Steven Finn, respectively. At this point it looked as though West Indies were going to struggle to reach 100 runs. They were in the end all bowled out for 122.
England took the opportunity to rest their front-line seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who are likely to open the bowling together in the second warm-up match against Pakistan. Their remaining bowlers found easy pickings against a disappointing West Indies line-up. Seamer Chris Woakes demonstrated a star performance and was the most economical of the bowlers with excellent figures of 5-19.
The Caribbean woes continued as England began their innings with Moeen Ali hitting 46. Even when he fell from 43 balls, fortune continued to favour the English, as Bell edged a delivery that fell safely allowing him to score 35 from 68 balls. England cruised to a victory with 27 overs to spare.
This was a job well done for England but there will be more challenging times ahead for them in the coming weeks.
England will be taking on Pakistan next at the same venue on Wednesday as they continue their preparations for the World Cup.
The tournament itself begins with New Zealand hosting Sri Lanka in Christchurch on Friday 13th February, while England play their opening match against Australia on Saturday.
