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A Steve Harmison hat-trick and an impressive debut from Alex Wharf propelled England to a big seven-wicket win over India at Trent Bridge.

Set 171 to win the opening game of the NatWest Challenge, England cruised home in the 33rd over with Vikram Solanki striking a half-century.

But England won the game with the ball, Wharf taking three wickets in his first three overs to return 3-30.

Harmison took the last three wickets to claim England's second ODI hat-trick.

The Durham paceman had Mohammad Kaif caught behind, Lakshmipathy Balaji caught in slip and Ashish Nehra caught and bowled to finish India's innings in the 44th over.

James Anderson, left out for this match, is the only other England player to have taken a one-day hat-trick, against Pakistan at The Oval last summer.

Skipper Michael Vaughan's decision to bowl first owed as much to England's poor record batting first as the promise of some early life in the Trent Bridge pitch.

Laxman walks after Wharf has him caught behind for 29

The requisite breakthrough duly came in the third over courtesy of Darren Gough, who had Virender Sehwag caught off a miscued leg-side flick.

The loss did nothing to unsettle Sourav Ganguly, opening in place of the injured Sachin Tendulkar, and VVS Laxman.

The pair treated Harmison with a contempt unseen this summer, forcing Vaughan to turn to Wharf after just 11 overs.

Two set-in world class batsmen against a debutant could have resulted in carnage, but Wharf was more than equal to the task.

Ganguly became the Glamorgan all-rounder's first international scalp when pulling a ball too far outside off-stump into the gloves of Geraint Jones.

And the 29-year-old quickly added Laxman and Rahul Dravid (both caught) to his list, reducing India from 62-1 to 80-4 with his first three overs.

The visitors were plunged deeper into strife just nine runs later when Yuvraj Singh chanced a third run and perished to Ashley Giles' good arm from the deep.

I'm a pretty quiet guy so I'll just take it in my stride Man of the Match Alex Wharf More match quotes

Introduced to the attack three overs later, Giles bowled straight through and was primarily responsible for India enduring an arid patch mid-innings.

Seventeen overs passed without a boundary, with only Paul Collingwood's outstanding one-handed effort to remove Rohan Gavaskar brightening the period.

For his part, Giles was rewarded with the wicket of Irfan Pathan, whose return catch to the spinner reduced India to 143-7.

Mohammad Kaif, to his credit, plugged away and deservedly reached his eighth half-century with a single in the 44th over.

But next ball the spotlight turned to Harmison, who left his indifferent opening spell behind with three balls he will never forget.

Of the trio of batsmen to fall, the middle dismissal of Balaji was questionable with the ball looking to hit the armguard.

But it nevertheless capped a fine job in the field for England, and they carried the momentum into the chase.

I expect India to come back strongly at The Oval and Lord's - I predict they'll win 2-1 From Vijayakumar Arumugam Have your say on TMS

Marcus Trescothick and Solanki scored at five-per-over until the former chopped Balaji to Yuvraj at backward point for 33 off 40 balls.

Balaji struck again when taking out Vaughan's off-stump, removing the England skipper for a duck, and Pathan gained revenge for earlier stick by trapping Solanki leg before one ball after the recalled opener had passed fifty.

All that was left was for Andrew Flintoff to thrill the crowd with his customary thrash, and he did that with three sixes, including one to finish the match, in an unbeaten 34 off 23 balls.

Andrew Strauss, who remained unbeaten on 41, was happy to take a back seat as England took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series and cast their wretched NatWest Series campaign to distant memory.

England: M E Trescothick, V S Solanki, A J Strauss, M P Vaughan (Capt), P D Collingwood, A Flintoff, G O Jones (Wkt), A F Giles, A G Wharf, D Gough, S J Harmison.

India: V Sehwag, S C Ganguly (Capt), V V S Laxman, R Dravid (Wkt), Yuvraj Singh, M Kaif, R S Gavaskar, A Kumble, L Balaji, I K Pathan, A Nehra.