England coach Duncan Fletcher wary of Zimbabwe

Colombo, September 17: England may have beaten Zimbabwe in their last seven one-day encounters, but on the eve of their first league match against them in the ICC Champions Trophy on Wednesday, coach Duncan Fletcher still considers Andy Flower and his teammates dangerous.

"They are still dangerous. They are a good one-day side, play as a unit and they have just had a close game against India," Fletcher said after the Englishmen's practice session at the R Premadasa Stadium.

The well-balanced pool-B is the only one in the tournament that seems to hold an even chance for all three sides, and Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak believes that his team can still make it to the semi-final despite the 14-run defeat to India on Saturday night.

Zimbabwe were not far behind India's 288 for six, but the batsmen ran out of steam in the end overs.

Fletcher said the fact that Zimbabwe had already played one match in the tournament and got acclimatized to the conditions here gave them a slight advantage. "They may have a slight advantage, as they have already played here, they have a feel of the tournament already."

England are without key players like Michael Vaughan, Darren Gough and Andy Flintoff, but there is some expectation about newcomer Ian Blackwell, a 24-year-old left-handed all- rounder, who plays for Somerset.

Blackwell's left-arm spin may come in handy in the middle overs on the slow wickets here. All-rounders Ronnie Irani and Craig White will lend balance to the side, which has quick-scoring Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight at the top of the order.

Streak made light of the fact that Zimbabwe had lost its last seven matches to England. "All that was quite a while ago. We are not looking so far back right now. Our recent performance has been good. There are a lot of different players now."

He said he was happy to be in a pool where one could go through to the semi-final by winning one game, as each had the ability to beat the others. He admitted that Zimbabwe players had to brush up a bit to overcome England.

Streak's own bowling form has been a little disappointing as India's openers took some early boundaries off him, and the difficulty the batsmen experienced in backing Andy Flower are things that ought to worry the captain.

"In retrospect, I could have batted a bit high in the order," Streak said.

England, who play India on September 22, know they have two hurdles to cross, and will be keen to get at least one out of the way tomorrow. The outcome of the group may be open-ended only if there is a three-way tie for the qualifier's spot, and they would not like to be in that position.

The teams:

England (from): Nasser Hussain (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Nick Knight, Jeremy Snape, James Kirtley, Alec Stewart, Craig White, Owais Shah, Ian Blackwell, Ashley Giles, Ronnie Irani, Rikki Clarke, Mathew Hoggard and Andrew Caddick.

Zimbabwe (from): Heath Streak (Captain), Alistair Campbell, Dion Ebrahim, Sean Ervine, Andy Flower, Grant Flower, Travis Friend, Douglas Hondo, Douglas Marillier, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, Raymond Price, Tatendu Taibu and Guy Whittal.

Umpires: Rudi Koertzen and Steve Bucknor.

TV umpire: Dave Orchard.

Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle.