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Cricket

Ill England edge T&T in Antigua thriller

29/10/2008

England have beaten Trinidad and Tobago by one run in their final warm-up match ahead of this weekend's big-money Stanford Super Series Twenty20.

Captain Kevin Pietersen top-scored for the tourists with a fluent 44 off 30 balls as his side posted a decent score of 141-6 in their 20 overs.

The Caribbean team made a good fist of overhauling the total through wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin's 37, opener Llendl Simmons' 21 and in-form Darren Bravo's 15 off ten balls.

However, they eventually fell one run short when tailender Ravi Rampaul was run out coming back for what would have been a game-tying second run off Steve Harmison's final ball.

England's score was more impressive because of a stomach bug that has torn through the squad, leaving four players - fast bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom and all-rounder Luke Wright - confined to their hotel rooms.

With only 11 fit players to choose from, Pietersen's side faced an uphill struggle against a decent Trinidadian lineup - especially with Test opener Alastair Cook set to bat at number nine.

But alongside the skipper's excellent innings from number five, opener Ian Bell got 37 runs off 41 balls, Samit Patel hit 17 off 14 from number three and Andrew Flintoff - who Pietersen said played despite being "on his last legs" through illness - was unbeaten on 11 from 15.