Collingwood and Pietersen show their credentials as England win warm-up

HEARTENING half-centuries from Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen, and more wickets for Stuart Broad, eased England to a 67-run World Cup warm-up win over Pakistan.

Pietersen (66) and Collingwood (65) were the main contributors to England's 273 all out, the former producing welcome evidence his move up the order may work in the sub-continent and the latter back to form in the nick of time before this tournament begins in earnest. Broad continued his impressive return from injury with four top-order wickets to undermine Pakistan's reply and Younus Khan's hard-working 80 could not redress the balance - especially after Collingwood chipped in with figures of three for 48.

Pietersen's 78-ball innings earlier ended in the 27th over. It fell principally therefore to Collingwood to engineer a defendable total after England had been asked to bat first. They lost Andrew Strauss in the third over of their first meeting with Pakistan since last summer's Test and limited-overs series ended in acrimony thanks to the spot-fixing crisis. In front of a capacity crowd of 16,000 it was veteran fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar who struck first, as Strauss posted his second single-figure score in succession. He followed Wednesday's one run against Canada with five today - bowled, edging an ugly heave to leg on to his stumps.

Jonathan Trott joined Pietersen but could not get going, and when left-armer Junaid Khan (three for 44) changed the angle by going round the wicket he was soon rewarded - clipping a bail after the number three missed as he too aimed to leg. Pietersen dominated a stand of 70 with Ian Bell, going to his 50 by hitting off-spinner Saeed Ajmal for a six over long-on and looked set for three figures until he went up the wicket to slow left-armer Abdur Rehman and failed to cover the spin.

Collingwood struggled early on, and Bell was stumped off Ajmal. Ravi Bopara struck the ball cleanly and ran well to help put on 82 in only 12 overs - and Collingwood found his touch to reach 50 in 60 balls. After Bopara holed out at long-on, Collingwood and Matt Prior kept the tempo high until a late clatter of five wickets for 12 runs as Wahab Riaz finished with three for 52. Broad (five for 25), who had taken three wickets with the new ball and five in all two days ago in his first match for more than two months, put Pakistan in instant trouble. He had Mohammad Hafeez neatly caught at first slip by Strauss, then saw off a pair of Akmals - Kamran pinned lbw on off-stump and Umar undone by low bounce to be bowled. Younus responded with some typically sensible batting, for a 70-ball half-century. He needed support, though, and in the absence of Shahid Afridi or Abdul Razzaq's middle-order power, both all-rounders rested by Pakistan, it was not forthcoming.

Tim Bresnan, back after his calf injury, bowled accurately - and although James Anderson was a little rusty Strauss had plenty of back-up options.

Collingwood and Anderson bagged a wicket each when Asad Shafiq and then Ahmad Shehzad missed big hits. Then with approaching nine-an-over required, Misbah-ul-Haq was lbw to Collingwood, attempting a drive. Younus was left with too much to do and eventually fell in a vain cause, appropriately to Broad when he edged a wide ball and was well-caught behind by Prior.

Trott did not take the field last night, nursing a minor injury to his right little finger.

England Innings

AJ Strauss b Shoaib Akhtar 5

KP Pietersen st Kamran Akmal b Rehman 66

IJL Trott b Junaid Khan 9

IR Bell st Kamran Akmal b Ajmal 39

PD Collingwood lbw b Wahab Riaz 65

RS Bopara c Younus Khan b Ajmal 35

MJ Prior c Umar Akmal b Junaid Khan 24

TT Bresnan b Junaid Khan 5

MH Yardy not out 1

SCJ Broad b Wahab Riaz 0

JM Anderson b Wahab Riaz 4

Extras (lb6, w11, nb3) 20

Total (49.4 overs) 273

Fall: 1-6, 2-37, 3-117, 4-134, 5-216, 6-261, 7-267, 8-268, 9-269.

Bowling: Shoaib Akhtar 10-0-62-1; Junaid Khan 8-0-44-3; Wahab Riaz 9.4-1-52-3; Ajmal 10-0-50-2; Rehman 10-0-52-1; Mohammad Hafeez 2-0-7-0.

Pakistan Innings

Kamran Akmal lbw b Broad 18

Mohammad Hafeez c Strauss b Broad 0

Younus Khan c Prior b Broad 80

Umar Akmal b Broad 2

Shafiq b Collingwood 12

Shehzad b Anderson 26

Misbah ul-Haq lbw b Collingwood 25

Rehman c & b Collingwood 5

Wahab Riaz c Anderson b Broad 11

Shoaib Akhtar c Prior b Bresnan 1

Junaid Khan not out 8

Extras (lb6, w11, nb1) 18

Total (46.1 overs) 206

Fall: 1-8, 2-24, 3-34, 4-74, 5-123, 6-169, 7-181, 8-187, 9-192.

Bowling: Anderson 8-0-34-1; Broad 8.1-1-25-5; Bresnan 8-1-29-1; Collingwood 10-0-48-3; Yardy 9-0-44-0; Bopara 3-0-20-0.

England beat Pakistan by 67 runs