Shah holds England together

BOWRAL, NSW, Jan 8 AAP - Owais Shah, unwanted by England for the cricket World Cup, scored 127 as England made 8-279 in its one-day match against the Bradman XI in Bowral today.

Shah opened the batting and after battling through a tough period, was dismissed in the 48th over for 127, made off 154 balls.

He hit nine fours and two sixes before he was caught on the boundary by Stuart MacGill off part-time bowler Greg Mail, who bowled at the death for an impressive return of 2-11 from three overs.

England's innings was personified by Shah who took 81 balls to reach 50 before scoring his last 77 runs off 73 balls.

England, slow at first, sparked into life in the final 10 overs which were delivered by a collection of unlikely bowlers - part-timer Simon Katich, guest player Mike Whitney, slow medium pacer Shawn Bradstreet and Mail, normally an opening batsman for New South Wales.

As a result England blasted 91 runs off the final 10 overs - thanks mainly to Shah and Adam Hollioake, who hit a quick half-century as the pair added 105 off 83 balls.

England got off to a flying start with 24 runs off the first three overs - thanks mainly to some edges from Shah - but things gradually ground to a halt as Nick Knight struggled to get on strike and Shah battled to score.

Knight went for 13 off 22 balls, caught by Katich at mid-on off the bowling of Dominic Thornley, who took 2-30 from his 10 overs.

From 1-55 after 11 overs, England crawled to 1-75 after 20 overs as Shah and out of form, stand-in captain Ronnie Irani were tied down by Thornley and Bradstreet, who had bowled six overs for 12 runs before Irani clouted him out of the ground in the 22nd over.

Still, Bradstreet went out of the attack with 0-19 from his seven overs and came back to concede another 28 runs off his final three overs.

Irani hit a six off a tired looking Stuart MacGill but then fell for 39 (off 54 balls) when Thornley trapped him lbw.

Shah joined the assault on MacGill with a six over mid-wicket and the Australia leg spinner slunk out of the attack after conceding 30 runs from four overs.

Paul Collingwood (3) was run out from a direct hit by Mail in the 31st over as England fell to 3-134.

Ian Blackwell hit a six off his first ball - and the first bowled by Katich - but that rivalry went Katich's way when he bowled Blackwell five balls later for seven.

Hollioake was the first English batsman to truly dominate the attack, cracking his half-century off 34 balls.

He was run out in the 46th over for 53 off 38 balls.

England left out the bulk of its Test players, with Robert Key and Matthew Hoggard the only players from the victorious fifth Test side backing up two days later.