England crash to humiliating defeat

Mumbai Cricket Association XI 222 for 7 (Marathe 65) beat England XI 98 (Swann 24*, Waingankar 5-37) by 124 runs
Scorecard

	Kshemal Waingankar picked up five wickets in the match, including Kevin Pietersen for a duck © AFP

England crumpled to an embarrassing defeat in their second warm-up match at the Brabourne Stadium. With just three days until their first of seven ODIs against India, they folded to 98 all out chasing 223, as the Mumbai Cricket Association XI romped to a 124-run win.

They suffered an early blow when Stuart Broad withdrew from the game with a sore knee and with Ryan Sidebottom still out with an Achilles injury, England went into the match with only two fit fast bowlers. The problems were compounded by poor shot selection and failures from several of their top-order batsmen.

Despite their injury limitations, England did well to limit the MCA XI to 222 for 7 off their 50 overs, with Steve Harmison the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 38. Matt Prior spilt an edge from Paul Valthaty off James Anderson in the first over - Valthaty went on to make 44 in a second-wicket stand of 81 with Sushant Marathe. Samit Patel picked up two wickets, including OJ Khanvilkar for a second-ball duck, but it was Harmison who took the key wickets of Marathe and, importantly, Shoaib Shaikh who smashed 37 from 35.

When England batted things went from bad to worse, through a combination of accurate swing bowling and poor shot selection. Ian Bell got an edge chasing a wide delivery, Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior both fell leg-before - although Pietersen had some cause to feel aggrieved as he was some way down the track - and Paul Collingwood limply chipped to mid-on. The man who did the damage was 23-year-old seamer Kshemal Waingankar who took 5 for 37.

That they managed to get close to a hundred against what was little more than a second-string side was an achievement. At one stage they were 50 for 8, and a last-wicket stand of 34 between Anderson (20 from 24) and Graeme Swann gave the score a flicker of respectability, but only a flicker. Swann was left stranded on 24 from 31 as England were rolled for 98 in 25 overs.

"We were lucky to get early breakthroughs and we built it from there," Waingankar said. "But England are professionals and I am sure they will bounce back."