World Cup: Collingwood return an unexpected boost for England

Paul Collingwood

Paul Collingwood has flown to Bangladesh to join up with the England squad earlier than expected after his wife gave birth to a baby girl yesterday.

Collingwood is also making considerable progress on a back injury and should be fit for warm-up matches this week, but Graeme Swann, who claims he is now 100 per cent fit, remains in England awaiting the birth of a child of his own.

But joint favourites India have had their own shot of confidence in the arm ahead of the tournament, after taking nine wickets for just 58 runs in a late comeback against Australia.

The Aussies had dominated the first 70 overs, bowling India out for 214 and accelerating to 116-1 in their first 21 overs of batting. But an implosion over the final 30 overs left them 38 runs short as Piyush Chawla took four wickets and Harbhajan Singh took three to shock Ricky Ponting’s side.

The win will do everything to settle India’s nerves ahead of hosting the upcoming tournament, with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni admitting last week that they will be under pressure as favourites.

Australia will take heart from a gritty half-century from Ricky Ponting on his return from injury, but their late collapse could slow their momentum after dominating England in the recent one-day series Down Under.

Ireland made New Zealand sweat in their World Cup warm up, reaching their highest ever one-day total of 279 and just 32 runs short of their target on Saturday.

New Zealand’s poor form has continued after losing an ODI series to Pakistan earlier this month and they are dogged by off the field controversies, but spinner Ross Taylor is denying the two are impacting on their preparations.

He told ESPNcricinfo: “Both the incidents [Jesse Ryder's tweet and Tim Southee's in-flight controversy] were blown out of proportion. There are various distractions on and off the field, but you just have to get on and do what you do best, which is play the game of cricket. That's what the team are doing, and these distractions won't interfere with the way we play.”

Lyall Thomas - Follow me on Twitter

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