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Results Based News

England suffer heavy defeat

Author: Sir David Smith
Date: 12/06/2009

England are facing an uphill battle to advance in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament after suffering a heavy defeat in their first Super Eight game.

England suffered a seven-wicket defeat against pre-tournament online betting odds favourites South Africa at Trent Bridge on Thursday evening.

The hosts batted first and laboured to 111 all out after a disappointing showing with the bat.

Only three players - captain Paul Collingwood, Kevin Pietersen and Owais Shah - made it into double figures as England failed to bat out their 20 overs.

The innings - England's second lowest in Twenty20 internationals - was reminiscent of the 99 all out debacle in the $1million Stanford Super Series match in the Caribbean last November.

Jacques Kallis, who had taken 2-20 with the ball, then helped South Africa reach the small total with ease by hitting an unbeaten 57 off 49 balls.

England must now overcome group rivals West Indies and India to ensure they qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.

Elsewhere, New Zealand thrashed Ireland by 83 runs in their Super Eight encounter. The Black Caps racked up 198 runs after being put in to bat but then bowled Ireland out for 115 inside 17 overs to wrap up a comfortable victory.

Aaron Redmond smashed 63 off just 30 balls as New Zealand roared out of the blocks at Trent Bridge and immediately put Ireland on the back foot.

England's women performed more impressively than their male counterparts by beginning the inaugural World Twenty20 with a convincing ten-wicket thrashing of India at Taunton.

In tennis, Andy Murray reached the quarter-finals at Queen's with a 6-4 6-4 win over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

The British number one and sportsbook favourite was never seriously troubled in his second match of the traditional pre-Wimbledon warm-up tournament.

He will play Mardy Fish in the last eight after the American beat Feliciano Lopez 6-1 6-4.

Andy Roddick, James Blake and Juan Carlos Ferrero also reached the quarter-finals following their own respective victories.

Meanwhile, British interest in the Aegon Classic tournament in Birmingham ended at the second-round stage after Elena Baltacha, Melanie South and Naomi Cavaday were all beaten.

Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Baltacha in a close three-set game, while South and Cavaday lost in straight sets to China's Jie Zheng and Switzerland's Stefanie Voegel.

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