Sussex's James Kirtley took two wickets, but England still crashed to an embarassing eight wicket defeat against Wales.

Kirtley removed England discard Robert Croft and David Hemp to finish with 2-37 from his ten overs in England's warm-up game before the start of the Natwest One-Day Series.

But his wickets came after Croft had played a leading role in guiding Wales to victory.

Demonstrating his greater agility after a winter working on his fitness, Croft took a superb diving catch at cover to remove Michael Vaughan and then took his turn with the ball by bowling ten tidy overs to snuff out a possible middle order recovery and restrict England to 189-9 from their 50 overs.

Croft then set the tone for Wales' reply by hammering 30 off 26 balls as a pinch-hitter before Kirtley ripped out his middle stump.

"I've never given up hope of getting my place back," admitted Croft.

"Competition is great for the success of English cricket and the more people who are pushing for places, the better.

"I know Duncan (Fletcher) and Nasser (Hussain) pretty well and they wouldn't have wanted to lose, but in some ways it could act as a good thing for them.

"They know the standard they have to achieve if they are to beat sides like India and Sri Lanka."

Kirtley later dismissed David Hemp for 57, but Wales were only 13 runs short of victory at that stage which they sealed with 9.3 overs to spare.

Jason Lewry is likely to replace Kirtley in the Sussex attack for the Championship match against Yorkshire at Arundel tomorrow (11am).

Skipper Chris Adams will have a late fitness test on his injured knee.