ST LUCIA: Captains Stephen Fleming and Michael Vaughn speak to reporters about their World Cup opener

New Zealand Captain Stephen Fleming is happy to have gotten past England after their improved performance in Australia. Scott Styris took two scalps before striking an unbeaten 87 to help New Zealand recover from a shaky start and beat England by six wickets in their World Cup Group C match on Friday (March 16). The Black Caps reached their target in 41 overs after England had been undone by some rash shots and suffered a middle-order collapse on their way to 209 for seven. If both sides progress to the Super Eight stage as expected, New Zealand will carry over the two points gained from this match. England captain Vaughan said New Zealand had put them under a lot of pressure with the ball and he bemoaned the fact that none of his players went on to score a century, a common problem in their one-day displays. New Zealand were 72 for four at one stage in their chase but England could not capitalise. "I guess so we didn't get a player to get that 80 or 100 where we know if we do that we post a decent total that position of 130 off of 3 with 17 overs left. We were looking like getting 230 to 250 which on that wicket and the conditions which we were asked to bat we'd have certainly taken that but again when we were in the field we had a small sniff of an opportunity to beat them when we had them they were four down," he said, before immediately looking ahead to the next match against Canada on Sunday. "I think it is a good thing that we play so soon. We know the conditions here now. We will certainly be picking what we think is the best XI against Canada," he added.

ITN Source | March 18, 2007

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