Flintoff level with Botham in battle of the six-shooters

Bangladesh 134-9 England 137-3 England win by seven wkts

It seems hard to believe that Bangladesh are getting any better after receiving their second seven-wicket walloping in four days from Michael Vaughan's side, but they are. In the second one-day international of this three match series it took England and Andrew Flintoff 13 more balls to finish off their wretched opponents.

There was, however, a reason for this setback. On Friday, Flintoff started his innings in the 11th over, whereas last night, under the lights, the Lancashire all-rounder had to wait until the 13th before he was let loose on the Bangladeshi bowlers.

Those who have watched these two one-sided encounters should be grateful to England's top order for putting such a low price on their wickets because without Flintoff's fireworks each match would have been eminently forgettable. On the way to his fourth man-of-the-match award in five games, the 25-year-old moved to within one hefty stroke of beating a record set by Ian Botham, England's greatest all-rounder.

Throughout his England career Botham was noted for hitting sixes but Beefy's strike-rate in one-day cricket cannot compete with that of Flintoff. During the 116 limited-over games Botham played in he cleared the ropes on 44 occasions. It has taken Flintoff only 64 matches to draw level with the great man.

Flintoff's 44th six for England came off the 37th ball he faced and took him to 50. After raising his bat to the dressing-room, England's new "master blaster" went in search of the record but could only hit three further boundaries in the 10 balls he faced before finishing the match with 22.2 overs remaining. This, however, still gave him enough time to take his score to 70.

Although this victory allowed England to wrap up this series with one game to be played, it appears Vaughan's side would be better off if they left Bangladesh now and did not stay on for tomorrow's final match here.

They have won each of the these games without the need to find a third gear and this is starting to have a detrimental affect on their cricket. In yesterday's match, after reducing Bangladesh to 7 for 4 in the 10th over, England sub-consciously let their standards slip in the field. At this stage the players realised the game was won and when this happens it occasionally does not matter what the mind tells the body to do - it can be difficult to react if you know you cannot be beaten.

England can get away with such an attitude here because the difference in ability between the two teams is vast. However, these bad habits, which are hard to shake off, could prove costly when England play Sri Lanka. Facing decent opposition can be a shock to the system when you are used to having things all your own way. It is why Marcus Trescothick and Paul Collingwood should not have played the reckless strokes which caused their downfall.

England's bowlers did all that could be asked of them against the shell-shocked batting line-up they faced, but their figures were slightly flattering. Richard Johnson was the pick. The Somerset swing bowler extracted bounce from this docile pitch and moved the new ball away from the bat at pace in his opening spell. Johnson fully deserved his two early wickets and it is still hard to believe that England, if they are taking their strongest possible side to Sri Lanka for the Test series, are going to send him home at the end of the one-day programme.

At one stage it appeared as though the 25,000 crowd would be on their way home before the lights could be switched on. That was until Rajin Saleh, a spirited little right-hander, and Mushfiqur Rahman showed some fight. The pair put on 53 before Saleh pulled a long-hop from Rikki Clarke to Ashley Giles at backward square-leg.

There was still an ironic air to the cheers when a run was scored. The local muezzin started to be heard outside the ground when Khaled Mahmud was at the crease. Inside there was some debate as to whether he was calling people to prayer or telling the captain to get his finger out. He didn't and fell lbw to Giles for four.

DHAKA SCOREBOARD

Bangladesh won the toss

BANGLADESH
Hannan Sarkar c Collingwood b Anderson 0
Nafis Iqbal c Read b Johnson 4
Mohammad Moniruzzaman c Read b Anderson 0
Rajin Saleh c Giles b Clarke 37
Alok Kapali c Read b Johnson 2
Mushfiqur Rahman b Johnson 22
Khaled Mahmud lbw b Giles 4
Khaled Mashud c Read b Flintoff 4
Manjural Islam Rana run out (Solanki-Anderson) 8
Mohammad Rafique not out 27
Tapash Baisya not out 12
Extras (b5,lb1,w7,nb1) 14
TOTAL (for 9, 220min, 50 overs) 134

Fall: 1-1 (Hannan Sarkar), 2-3 (Mohammad Moniruzzaman), 3-5 (Nafis Iqbal), 4-7 (Alok Kapali), 5-60 (Rajin Saleh), 6-69 (Khaled Mahmud), 7-77 (Khaled Mashud), 8-80 (Mushfiqur Rahman), 9-112 (Manjural Islam Rana).

Bowling: Anderson 10-4-17-2 (8-4-8-2 2-0-9-0), Johnson 10-0-22-3 (w2) (6-0-10-2 4-0-12-1), Flintoff 10-2-17-1 (w2)(6-2-13-0 4-0-4-1), Clarke 10-3-35-1 (nb1,w3) (3-2-8-0 5-1-11-1 2-0-16-0), Giles 9-2-32-1 (7-1-23-1 2-1-9-0), Blackwell 1-0-5-0.

Progress: 15 overs: 19-4. 50: 113min, 153 balls. 100: 197min, 271 balls.

ENGLAND
M E Trescothick b Mushfiqur Rahman 9
V S Solanki lbw b Tapash Baisya 0
M P Vaughan not out 37
P D Collingwood b Tapash Baisya 11
A Flintoff not out 70
Extras (b4,lb2,w2,nb2) 10
TOTAL (for 3, 115min, 27.4 overs) 137

Fall: 1-5 (Solanki), 2-19 (Trescothick), 3-37 Collingwood).

Did not bat: R Clarke, I D Blackwell, C M W Read, A F Giles, R L Johnson, J M Anderson.

Bowling: Tapash Baisya 7-0-35-2 (nb2), Mushfiqur Rahman 10-4-28-1 (w1), Mohammad Rafique 5-0-39-0 (w1), Khaled Mahmud 3.4-0-22-0, Manjural Islam Rana 2-0-7-0 (one spell each).

Progress: 50: 65min, 86 balls. 15 overs: 53-3. 100: 100min, 136 balls.

Flintoff 50: 52min, 37 balls, 6 fours, 4 sixes.

ENGLAND WON BY SEVEN WICKETS

Umpires: A F M Akhtaruddin and Aleem Dar

TV Replay Umpire: Mahbubur Rahman

Match Referee: Wasim Raja

Man of the Match: A Flintoff