England sweep series with Bangladesh

England became the final team to qualify for the NatWest series Final with a solid five wicket victory over Bangladesh at Headingley yesterday.

Lead by Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick, England were able to reach the modest target of 209 with 11 overs to spare.

Earlier in the day, the Bangladeshis had continued their recent good form with the bat, compiling a modest 208 for seven from their allotted 50 overs. Javed Omar Belim topscored for the minnows with a slow but steady 81 after the tourists had won the toss and elected to bat first.

England made one change to their starting lineup with the menacing Steve Harmison given a rest and Simon Jones taking his place. Jones had a nervous start to his home one-day international debut, bowling four wides in his first over. However he soon settled and dismissed Shahriar Nafees in the sixth over of the innings.

Chris Tremlett was brought in to replace Jones in the 11th over and almost had immediate success, with the usually reliable Paul Collingwood dropping Tushar Imran.

The star of the England bowling though was Andrew Flintoff. Flintoff, who has had an indifferent series with bat and ball so far took two quick wickets, including the prize scalp of Mohammaed Ashraful first ball. Dav Whatmore will not be pleased with the lazy flick that Ashraful produced straight to Trescothick at midwicket.

The loss of the wickets seemed to sap the visitors confidence and they fortified themselves for a period of rebuilding. However a piece of quick thinking to run out the Bangladeshi captain, Habibul Bashar, by Paul Collingwood reduced the Bangladeshis to 4-112, and he was soon joined in the pavilion by Aftab Ahmed, bowled by Giles to leave the visitors struggling at 5-138.

Flintoff then accounted for Omar, whose 81 came at a snails pace, and then Mashrafe Mortaza to finish the innings with 4-29. The English will be hoping that Flintoff is coming back into form after mediocre performances so far with both bat and ball in this series. Certainly they will need him at his best for the upcoming Test Series, especially since it is looking increasingly unlikely that Kevin Pietersen will be selected over Graham Thorpe.

In reply to the Bangladeshi total, regular openers Strauss and Trescothick set about building a solid foundation, Strauss in particular hitting three fours in one over. They carried the English total to 99 before Trescothick was caught behind. Flintoff then came in to lift the runrate, a feat he partially accomplished before he was leg before with the English within striking distance at 134.

Both Vikram Solanki and Kevin Pietersen fell cheaply before Strauss holed out trying to bring up his century in style. The game was over the very next delivery when Manjural Islam anticlimactically bowled a wide delivery.

The victory sets up an Australia vs England final next Saturday at Lords, a game for which England captain Michael Vaughan should return, as well as Harmison.

Full scorecard available here.

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