We were second best say colly

England captain Paul Collingwood offered “no excuses” after his team were stunned by Holland in the opening game of the ICC World Twenty20 tonight.

England lost by four wickets off the last ball of the match - a result which has left their hopes of progress to the latter stages of the competition in doubt.

The hosts must now beat Pakistan in their second Group B match on Sunday to stand any chance of progressing - and Collingwood acknowledged a bad night for his team.

He told Sky Sports: “I’m not going to make any excuses. They beat us fair and square.

“We’ve got a big game coming up on Sunday and need to pick our chins up off the floor and play really well there.”

Collingwood continued: “Give Holland a lot of credit - we thought we had enough runs but they knocked them off.

“We didn’t bowl as well as we could have but we expected to win and they have put a major performance in.

“We were looking to get up to 170-180. They bowled well at the back end of our innings and we should have defended a total like that - but unfortunately they were better on the day.

“Holland had no fear and every time we got a wicket we thought we were on top.

“We had a lot of chances at the back end. We do it in practice but you need to do it out in the middle in pressure situations and tonight we didn’t do it.

“There’s a fine line between winning and losing and tonight we didn’t do it.”

Holland captain Jeroen Smits said: “It’s really unbelievable. This is something special. I think I can sleep well tonight.

“We fought back quite well after the first 10 overs and we came back in (after the England innings) and said ‘we’ll go for it’.

“We had some luck but I think we deserve to win. We were in control from the start.

“Tommy de Grooth played a fantastic innings and we were always ahead on Duckworth-Lewis. The last two overs were tight...but I think we did well."

Man of the match de Grooth, who made 49, added: “We set out a few months ago to achieve a few things - and this was one.

“We wanted to play at Lord’s, qualify for the World Cup in 2011 and beat a big nation...and I think we just did that.”

source: ECB