ENGLAND made a spirited fightback with bat and ball in their opening World Cup match today after another middle order collapse threatened to put New Zealand in command.
Put into bat in the heavyweight Group C encounter, England's hopes of beginning the tournament strongly seemed to have slipped away when the loss of four wickets for five runs left them reeling on 138 for seven.
A spirited 71-run stand between wicketkeeper Paul Nixon and Liam Plunkett guided England to a competitive 209 for seven and that momentum helped claim three early wickets to put New Zealand under pressure.
But after dismissing Lou Vincent, Ross Taylor and Stephen Fleming inside the first five overs, New Zealand recovered to reach a more promising 72 for three after 15 overs of their reply.
Seamer James Anderson, who passed a late fitness test on his broken right little finger to play, gave England a flying start to New Zealand's reply by having Vincent caught behind with the sixth legitimate delivery.
Momentum
Plunkett continued the momentum by dismissing Taylor two balls later with Andrew Flintoff taking a brilliant diving catch at first slip and Fleming was caught at mid-wicket trying to pull Anderson from outside off stump.
Their reply followed similar lines to England's innings, which began with Ed Joyce falling to the first legitimate delivery of the day from left-arm seamer James Franklin which he edged behind.
Ian Bell, frustrated by scoring only five from 17 balls, was also caught behind trying to advance down the pitch to all-rounder Jacob Oram and captain Michael Vaughan chopped onto his stumps to leave England struggling on 52 for three.
They recovered sufficiently to put themselves on course for a major total, however, with Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood forging an 81-run stand spanning 19.3 overs.
Pietersen was perhaps fortunate to survive an appeal for lbw to the first ball he faced from left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, but otherwise looked in little trouble during his 92-ball innings.
Collingwood was equally assured and all-rounder Scott Styris' failure to take a smart return catch off him with 15 overs remaining appeared costly with the Durham all-rounder nicely placed on 31.
Reflex
But just two balls later Collingwood attempted to late cut Styris and instead edged behind for McCullum to take an impressive reflex catch standing up to the stumps.
After three more deliveries Pietersen, who had hit four fours and a six in his 60, failed to get the power he had hoped from a front-foot drive and instead chipped fast bowler Shane Bond's third ball straight to long on.
Bond, who had only just been recalled to the attack, quickly claimed a second crucial victim when his slower ball induced Andrew Flintoff into a checked drive which looped to cover for a first-ball duck.
Three overs after that Jamie Dalrymple became Styris' second victim by edging behind as he pushed forward defensively, leaving Nixon and Plunkett with the responsibility of guiding England to a competitive total in the final 10 overs.
England's eighth-wicket partnership delivered with Nixon hitting 42 off 41 balls, including five fours, while Plunkett continued his emergence as a lower-order strokemaker with an unbeaten 29.
But New Zealand's confident reply, with Styris and Craig McMillan forging an unbroken 53-run stand, suggested England's total was under par.
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