Cook hits century in England win

Christchurch—Essex opener Alastair Cook scored an unbeaten 138 as England eased to a seven-wicket win over Canterbury in Sunday’s one-match in Christchurch.
Cook hit two sixes and 20 fours in his unbeaten 140-ball knock as England made their target with 43 balls to spare. Luke Wright and Paul Collingwood each took three wickets with Canterbury held to a modest 218-9 in their 50 overs. Collingwood took 3-15 from five overs, then added a handy 40 from 48 balls in a strong all-round performance.
England, who had beaten Canterbury by 51 runs in their first limited-overs match on Saturday, meet New Zealand in the first of two Twenty20 internationals in Auckland on Tuesday. The two sides had earlier agreed to reduce the number of players per side from 13 to 12. England decided to rest Ian Bell, who top-scored with 79 on Saturday, and Ryan Sidebottom, with Hampshire seamer Chris Tremlett getting his first run-out of the tour. But it was Lancashire seamer James Anderson, who claimed five wickets on Saturday, who made the first breakthrough.
He tempted opener Iain Robertson into driving to Owais Shah at mid-off.
Tremlett followed by inducing Johann Myburgh into edging behind, with wicket-keeper Phil Mustard taking a fine diving catch to his right. Captain Collingwood then claimed wickets with successive balls, firstly removing Peter Fulton with a smart return catch. Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Harris fell to the next delivery when he played on.
Two overs later, the England captain claimed a third scalp when Shanan Stewart drove tamely to Tremlett at mid-on and it was soon 104-5. Just as England thought they may restrict Canterbury to a really small total, Michael Papps teamed up with wicket-keeper Kruger van Wyk to share a frustrating 92-run stand. [Cook] has come in today and he is starting to hit the ball a bit harder and backing himself a lot more With Papps 11 short of a deserved century, he holed out to Anderson at deep mid-wicket to give Wright his first England wicket. Wright followed that first scalp with a second when Brandon Hiini was bowled in his next over and finished with impressive figures of 3-35.
An unbeaten 53 off 58 balls from van Wyk guided Canterbury past 200, but it was an insufficient total. In reply, Cook again dominated the opening partnership with Mustard, who was bowled for 11 attempting to slog seamer Leighton Burtt, while Kevin Pietersen also fell cheaply when he was caught behind for 10. Collingwood contributed a useful 40 towards an 89-run stand before being caught in the deep off leg-spinner Todd Astle. But the left-handed Cook kept his composure to steer England home and put himself firmly in the frame for Tuesday’s Twenty20 opener at Eden Park.
Collingwood said afterwards that selection for the Twenty20 matches would be tough, given the good form of many of the players. He said: “Twenty20 cricket is a different form of the game and we’re going to have to get the right team to win the game on Tuesday. “[Cook] has given us a bit of a problem but a few of them have. “He can adapt to other forms of the game. He’s come in today and he is starting to hit the ball a bit harder and backing himself a lot more.
“The good thing about him is that he does learn quickly.” Collingwood was also happy with the improvement in England’s bowling attack over the two days. He said: “We were a little bit rusty yesterday in our mindset and in our plans, and we probably didn’t bowl as straight as we should have done. “But you can understand that because it’s our first outing of one-day cricket for some time.”
England have a poor record in Twenty20 internationals, Collingwood conceding: “It’s fair to say we need to adapt to that form of the game. “But I think we’ve got the players here who can play Twenty20 cricket and do well at it.”—Agencies