Hundred for Irani as England beat Bangladesh in ICC warm-up match

In a warm-up game for their forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy campaign, England beat Bangladesh by 77 runs in Colombo with significant contributions from their all-rounders. Ronnie Irani scored exactly 100 and Ian Blackwell 58 as the pair shared a fourth wicket partnership worth 115.

England reached 265 for seven in their innings, despite losing openers Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight had gone cheaply. Trescothick was captaining the side while Nasser Hussain rested, and with Alec Stewart suffering from a stomach bug, Owais Shah filled in behind the stumps. Shah made 45 before being run out.

Neither Irani nor Blackwell played a chanceless innings, but they would have been pleased to get scores under their belts at this stage in proceedings. Irani is very much a confidence player, while Blackwell is venturing into the unknown in this company and will have benefited enormously from the experience.

There was little chance that Bangladesh would be able to reach such a total and what chance they did have was snuffed out by Dominic Cork who took two for ten in a six over spell and England could contemplate their first match in the competition on Wednesday against Zimbabwe. This match against Bangladesh did not count as an official one-day international.