zimcricketnews.com

No surprises in the first round of warm-up matches, which all placed Full Members against Associates - although South Africa in particular will be breathing a sigh of relief, as Ireland at one stage had them at 98/8 before a timely performance from Andrew Hall saved their blushes. A worrying glitch for the world #1's, who have a reputation for choking at major tournaments, and also possibly worrying for Zimbabwe, who face Ireland in their first group match.

Also close was the West Indies v Kenya match - although with Kenya being easily the strongest Associate side & previous semi-finalists (2003), this maybe wasn't so much of a surprise. Scotland will be disappointed by the margin of their loss to Sri Lanka, coming off the back of their impressive form in the WCL Division One tournament, while Bermuda were on the receiving end of the first drubbing of the tournament after being bowled out by England for just 45 - inevitably bringing a fresh round of criticism at the inclusion of the Associates in the World Cup, but a look at the other matches should show that criticism to be mostly unfounded.
Sri Lanka beat Scotland by 159 runs
West Indies beat Kenya by 21 runs
South Africa beat Ireland by 35 runs
England beat Bermuda by 241 runs
Today's matches (6 March): Australia v Zimbabwe, Canada v Pakistan, Bangladesh v New Zealand and India v Netherlands.