WORCESTER (England), June 12: Bangladesh clinched the first win of their tour of England on Sunday with a four-wicket triumph over Worcestershire in a 50 overs match at New Road. The win was a timely morale-booster ahead of the triangular series with England and Australia later this week.

The tourists were set a modest target of 169 and achieved it with 14 overs to spare.

Although the tests ahead will be considerably more demanding, Bangladesh oach Dav Whatmore will take heart from several promising individual performances — from the likes of paceman Nazmul Hossain and batsmen Javed Omar and Mohammad Ashraful.

But it was not the send-off Worcestershire director of cricket Tom Moody would have wanted before he leaves the county later this week to become national coach of Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh needed a modest run rate of 3.38 per over but ran into early trouble against Worcestershire debutant Shoaib Akhtar and Nadeem Malik.

Malik made the initial breakthrough when he bowled Shahriar Nafees for a duck, and then Shoaib struck with the final ball of his second over to have wicket-keeper Rajin Saleh caught behind for a single.

It became 24 for three when Tushar Imran edged David Wigley to second slip, and at that stage Worcestershire looked set for a convincing victory.

But a stand of 82 in 13 overs between Omar and Ashraful swung the match in favour of the tourists.

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib, having caused problems in an opening spell of 4-1-4-1, came in for heavy punishment when he returned to the attack and conceded five boundaries in the space of 10 balls.

It was slow left-armer Ray Price who broke the stand at 106 when Omar (43) mistimed a sweep to square-leg - and then a superb catch by Stephen Peters at backward point accounted for Ashraful (40) off Malik.

Price struck for the second time when he bowled Aftab Ahmed to leave the game in the balance at 125 for six, with 44 more runs still needed.

But captain Habibul Bashar and Manjural Islam kept their heads to ensure victory for Bangladesh with an unbroken partnership of 44.

Worcestershire had elected to bat but struggled to come to terms with the pace of Tapash Baisya, Hossain and gentler fare of Khaled Mahmud as they were routed for 168 in 44.1 overs.

Scoreboard

WORCESTERSHIRE:

S.C. Moore b Nazmul 9

S. Davies c Rajin b Nazmul 11

Z. de Bruyn lbw b Mahmud 34

B.F. Smith c Manjural b Mahmud 17

D. Mitchell b Aftab 2

S.D. Peters b Manjural 2

D. Pipe c Javed b Nazmul 22

R. Price c Rajin b Baisya 7

Shoaib Akhtar b Manjural 11

M. Malik not out 5

D. Wigley c Rajin b Mahmud 2

EXTRAS (B-5, LB-2, W-33, NB-6) 46

TOTAL (all out, 44.1 overs) 168

FALL OF WKTS: 1-19, 2-43, 3-96, 4-97, 5-100, 6-112, 7-143, 8-159, 9-162.

BOWLING: Tapash Baisya 10-0-41-1; Nazmul Hossain 8-1-24-3; Khaled Mahmud 7.1-0-29-3, Aftab Ahmed 10-0-46-1; Manjural Islam Rana 9-1-21-2.

BANGLADESH:

Javed Omar c Moore b Price 43

Shahriar Nafees b Malik 0

Rajin Saleh c Pipe b Shoaib Akhtar 1

Tushar Imran c Davies b Wigley 7

Mohammad Ashraful c Peters b Malik 40

Habibul Bashar not out 26

Aftab Ahmed b Price 16

Manjural Islam Rana not out 16

EXTRAS (B-2, W-18) 20

TOTAL (for six wkts, 36 overs) 169

FALL OF WKTS: 1-1, 2-4, 3-24, 4-106, 5-106, 6-125.

DID NOT BAT: Khaled Mahmud, Tapash Baisya, Nazmul Hossain.

BOWLING: Shoaib Akhtar 9-1-34-1; Malik 8-0-32-2; Wigley 5-0-28-1; de Bruyn 4-0-39-0; Price 10-3-34-2.

RESULT: Bangladesh won by four wickets.—AFP