'Under-prepared' England wait on Trescothick's fitness

As preparation for an intense one-day series, England's solitary warm-up match in India was not quite a perfect replica of what awaits. Tomorrow, they will step out into the amphitheatre of Eden Gardens before a packed and volatile house of at least 100,000 spectators who will be making enough din not only to render it impossible for the players to hear themselves, but to persuade them that big trouble could occur at any moment – as it has done before and might very well do again if England are winning.

Yesterday, the tourists played in front of some 200 people who were having a jolly chat at the pleasantly suburban, tree-lined Calcutta Cricket and Football Club ground, a place which provides conclusive proof that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England, and where you half expected them to break into a chant of: "Stands the church clock at 10 to three and is there honey still for tea." There was also the additional matter of the opposition. Tomorrow (9am GMT), England will be playing India, a side short on confidence but long on talent who, when they last played at Eden Gardens in March 2001, followed on against Australia and ended up winning one of the greatest of all Test matches by 171 runs. Yesterday, England played a Bengal XI, a team containing one former international, Devang Gandhi, the son of a past Indian batting legend, Rohan Gavaskar, and several good club cricketers.

It was never going to be a contest and in the event it was not a match either. England scored 209 for 5 from 34 overs in reply to Bengal's 150 all out. This would normally be the other way round but England, having dismissed the home team cheaply, asked if they could bat on when they passed the target. More practice was essential. Three of their five wickets to fall came under the heading of retired out and the other two resulted from some merry hitting.

England used all 15 of the players in their squad. Nine of them bowled, seven of them took wickets, the medium-pacer Paul Collingwood capturing three in 10 balls. Six of them batted, Owais Shah scoring the only half-century (52) although 16 of the runs came after the match was won.

Marcus Trescothick kept wicket for part of the time and claimed a stumping and a catch. According to the coach, Duncan Fletcher, he looked a natural. The opening batsman, who kept wicket as a teenager and can recall missing a stumping off Jeremy Batty for Somerset against Oxford University, will act as emergency wicketkeeper in case James Foster is forced to withdraw at any time.

However, it is Trescothick who may be doubtful for tomorrow's match. He has a viral infection which persuaded him to return to the team's hotel after his keeping duties were done.

There was no evidence, incidentally, of the terror tracks which formed the practice pitches at the ground and which caused so much fuss earlier in the week. The strip was benign. Fletcher said there was some value in the match (he must have had Trescothick in mind), but that hardly diminished his central point.

"I've discussed it with Nasser [Hussain, the side's captain] and between us we feel we're just really under-prepared for this first one-day international," he said. "We will struggle to catch up." Fletcher, a pragmatist as his team selections tend to illustrate, did not wish to labour the point. But there is no doubt that his bunch of players, only five of whom have more than 30 one-day caps and seven of whom have fewer than 10, have hardly had time to blend.

Given the balance of the squad, team selection was never about to be straightforward, now it is almost a lottery. The selectors, who meet today but will probably not make up their minds until tomorrow morning, have a choice between picking specialist bowlers who might lengthen the tail or all-rounders who might provide cannon fodder for the Indian artillery.

For once, there is no point in England looking to the past for guidance on how to cope at Eden Gardens. They have never played a one-dayer against India at the ground. Indeed, India themselves have played only 10, the last in 1998.

This is because there has been a tendency to play Tests at the major Indian grounds and the one-day stuff at smaller venues. Of those 10 matches, Sachin Tendulkar has played in seven and averages 76. This is another point on which England would do better not to dwell.

There has been one limited-overs match involving England at the ground, the World Cup final of 1987 when they lost to Australia after Mike Gatting was out to Allan Border's first ball employing the reverse sweep. This shot is bound to feature prominently tomorrow.

England's players, to their credit, can hardly contain their excitement at being given the opportunity to appear at Eden Gardens. It will be a unique atmosphere and the chances are that if fires are burning in the stands England will be ahead.

Scoreboard

Bengal won toss

BENGAL XI

S Ganguly c Knight b Gough 4

A P Chakraborty c Hollioake b Hoggard 21

A A Lahiri st Trescothick b Giles 25

*R S Gavaskar c Giles b Collingwood 27

D J Gandhi c & b Collingwood 5

S G Das c Collingwood b Snape 16

S Singh c Trescothick b Collingwood 1

S S Sanyal c Gough b Vaughan 14

ÝA H Roy not out 15

A Ghosh b Flintoff 7

M Y Lodhgar c Foster b Gough 0

Extras (9w 4nb 2lb) 15

Total (42.3 overs) 150

Fall: 1-19, 2-31, 3-80, 4-85, 5-90, 6-92, 7-124, 8-126, 9-148.

Bowling: Gough 5.3-2-11-2; Caddick 4-2-10-0; Flintoff 5-0-22-1; Hoggard 4-0-9-1; Giles 5-0-15-1; Hollioake 3-0-27-0; Collingwood 5-0-8-3; Snape 7-1-24-1; Vaughan 4-0-12-1.

ENGLAND

M P Vaughan retired out 34

N V Knight retired out 49

O A Shah not out 36

G P Thorpe not out 20

Extras (2lb 7w 6nb) 15

Total (for 2 wkts, 25.1 overs) 154

Fall: 1-61, 2-100.

Umpires: A Banerjee and S Pathak.

ENGLAND WIN BY EIGHT WICKETS