Cricket: England A win against the odds

Zimbabwe A 262 England A 263-9 England A win by one wicket

ENGLAND A fought back to win an astonishing first match in the one-day series at the Queens Club after they had appeared to be coming second for almost the entire contest.

A fine all-round performance from Andrew Flintoff and a mature 70 from Vikram Solanki saw England home with one wicket and three balls to spare.

For the first time on the tour, Michael Vaughan lost the toss and and saw Zimbabwe make a steady start on a splendid batting pitch.

An enterprising fourth-wicket partnership between Dirk Viljoen (73) and Stuart Carlisle (80) produced 112 runs in 19 overs, but the rest of the line-up provided little resistance with the exception of Craig Evans' breezy 30 from 20 balls.

In reply England lost wickets steadily and when Graeme Swann was run out after colliding in midwicket with Solanki England were 156 for 6 with 13 overs remaining.

Solanki then took charge, putting on 66 in nine overs with Paul Franks before the latter was controversially run out after he gave the charge to a no-ball.

Thomas was bowled in the same over, and Solanki's innings ended in the next, so Dean Cosker came in to join Chris Read with 25 needed off 19 balls and one wicket in hand.

Needing four off the last over, Read scrambled two leg-byes off the first ball, then another off the next. Then Cosker pushed the third ball towards mid-on. The the throw hit the umpire and the batsmen and England were home.

Zimbabwe A won toss

ZIMBABWE A

C B Wishart c Read b Thomas 18

T N Madondo c Windows b Thomas 18

*G J Whittall c Windows b Flintoff 23

D P Viljoen c Solanki b Maddy 73

S V Carlisle c and b Maddy 80

C N Evans b Flintoff 30

A M Blignaut run out 0

A J MacKay c Vaughan b Flintoff 4

M D Abrams lbw b Maddy 1

G B Brent run out 7

D J Peacock not out 0

Extras (b1 lb4 w3) 8

Total (49.4 overs) 262

Fall: 1-40 2-41 3-89 4-201 5-225 6-228 7-252 8-253 9-261.

Bowling: Franks 8-0-45-0; Thomas 8-0-43-2; Maddy 9-0-54-3; Flintoff 8.4- 1-30-3; Cosker 10-0-51-0; Swann 6-0-34-0.

ENGLAND A

D L Maddy c Whittall b Blignaut 0

M B Loye c Evans b MacKay 24

A Flintoff st Madondo b Peacock 57

*M P Vaughan lbw b Whittall 5

M G N Windows run out 28

V S Solanki c Evans b Whittall 70

G P Swann run out 8

P J Franks run out 31

S D Thomas b Whittall 1

C M W Read not out 14

D A Cosker not out 8

Extras (b4 lb6 w3 nb4) 17

Total(for 9, 49.3 overs) 263

Fall: 1-0 2-61 3-71 4-114 5-136 6-156 7-222 8-224 9-238.

Bowling: Blignaut 7-1-29-1; MacKay 10-0-37-1; Whittall 8.3-1-55-2; Brent 8-0-30-0; Evans 3-0-18-0; Peacock 8-0-48-1; Viljoen 5-0-36-0.

Umpires: C Coventry and K Kanjee.