The presence of Paul Collinwood (42) and Andrew Flintoff (36), who added 68 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket, at the crease gave England hopes to build a challenging total against the ICC associate members.

Earlier, Kevin Pietersen lived up to his billing as the world's latest No. 1 one-day batsman when he launched an assault after Boyd Rankin had removed the England openers early.

Michael Vaughan's decision to bat was looking shaky when the England captain and Ed Joyce were back in the pavilion inside six overs. But Pietersen (48 off 47 balls) and Ian Bell (31) rebuilt in contrasting styles until Kevin O'Brien struck a third blow for the Irish.

Joyce, against his fellow countrymen who he helped qualify for the World Cup, made a poor misjudgement against Rankin's first ball and watched his off stump fly backwards on one.

Buoyed by his early success the tall Rankin continued to trouble the batsmen with dangerous outswingers. His second victim was Vaughan, who edged through to Niall O'Brien on six.

However, the tension was eased by the third wicket pair as Pietersen immediately began to find boundaries and by the start of the second Powerplay was moving into top gear, crashing 14 runs off Trent Johnston's first over.

Bell was more sedate and his inability to find the boundary against the lesser pace of Botha caused England to lose momentum, especially as he kept stealing the strike from Pietersen. Bell's 74-ball struggle on way to score 31 eventually ended when he attempted to glide O'Brien down to third man.