England came close to a shock defeat against World Cup minnows Canada in their opening warm-up match.
Andrew Strauss’ team began by springing a surprise, promoting Kevin Pietersen to open the batting – and ended it with much more than they bargained for as Rizwan Cheema’s counter-attack put Canada on the brink.
It seemed Canada had no chance in reply to 243 all out, after Stuart Broad (5-39) and Ajmal Shahzad reduced them to 28-5. But Cheema (93) had other ideas, making a mockery of everyone else’s laboured batting with sustained hitting which contained 10 fours and five sixes from 70 balls.
In the end, a victory margin of 16 runs flattered England.
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