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Denly and Strauss see England home
Cricket, 11:06, November 9, 2009 ,
Joe Denly admitted he likes batting with Andrew Strauss after the pair put on 175 as England easily beat Warriors in Kimberley.
The Kent batsman went into England's second match of the South Africa tour under pressure after failing in the opener, but he looked in good nick, stroking 82 from 85 deliveries to get the tourists off to a superb start as they chased down a victory target of 255.
Strauss continues to look world class and he hammered an unbeaten 117 from 119 balls to see his side home, while Alistair Cook hit a rapid 34 and Paul Collingwood hit 12 from seven deliveries to wrap things up.
Arno Jacobs top-scored for the hosts with an unbeaten run-a-ball 83 while Davey Jacobs made 50 as Warriors totalled 254-5 in their 50 overs.
Graeme Swann, with 3-26, was by far England's best bowler, while Saj Mahmood and Adil Rashid each took a wicket.
Any thoughts of an embarrassing defeat so close to the start of the one-day series with the Proteas went out of the window as Denley and Strauss went about their business in an organised way and by the time the right-hander was eventually dismissed the writing was on the wall.
Denly is relatively new to the England set-up and he admitted that batting with the captain is something he could easily get used to.
"It was brilliant to get ourselves off to a good start like that and the more I bat with Straussy, the more I like it," he said. "It is important to get some runs under your belt before the international games start and just have as much time out there as you can.
"It was quite tricky to begin with because the pitch is a bit slow and they were bowling cutters which were hard to get away.
"It was really about getting used to the pace of the pitch. Once I did that I felt the more time I spent out there the easier it became for me to time the ball and in the end I was feeling very comfortable."