Flintoff finally fell as he tried to reach his century with a big six

England rode on the back of another thrilling Andrew Flintoff innings to thump India at The Oval by 70 runs.

It gave them a 2-0 lead in the NatWest Challenge with just one match to come and it was the first time they had won batting first since February 2003.

Flintoff (99) and Paul Collingwood (79 not out) put on 174 in partnership, an England record for the fifth wicket.

England's 307-5 was far too good for India, and Darren Gough and Ashley Giles were the stars with the ball.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly won the toss and predictably elected to bowl.

His seamers let him down, however, despite the prodigious movement on offer and Vikram Solanki and Marcus Trescothick drove boundaries almost at will.

It took the introduction of Harbhajan Singh to quell the run-scoring, and he struck in the 12th over after 71 runs had been scored, Trescothick caught in the deep off a slog-sweep for 27.

Michael Vaughan had time to play himself in but contrived to get out via an edged leg-glance well held by wicket-keeper Rahul Dravid off Harbhajan.

The off-spinner continued to bowl tightly, as a less celebrated slow bowler, Virender Sehwag, took a couple of wickets of his own at the other end.

Harbhajan had put India on top with a fine spell in the morning

Andrew Strauss top-edged a sweep and Solanki edged to Dravid to leave the score a worrying 105-4 in the 21st over.

Flintoff and Collingwood had to repair the damage and were content to defend against Harbhajan, who finished with the extraordinary figures of 2-14 off his 10 overs.

Slowly, the English pair unleashed the big shots, Collingwood chipping his drives over the in-field, Flintoff favouring the cut shot and adding some big shots on the leg-side.

When the seamers returned, the carnage really started.

Collingwood reached his half-century a shade faster than Flintoff but the Lancastrian was brutal in the closing overs.

He hit Lakshmipathy Balaji for two fours and one six in a single over, before he was finally dismissed in unselfish fashion when attempting a big hit just one run short of his century.

He had faced 93 balls in all, with nine fours and four sixes.

Collingwood was unbeaten on 79 at the close, with Geraint Jones adding 12 off just six balls.

India's run chase began in disastrous fashion as Sehwag was trapped lbw by Gough in the first over and Ganguly run out in farcical circumstances soon afterwards.

He ran into his partner VVS Laxman, dropped his bat and was beaten by Flintoff's direct hit.

That left them 10-2 in the fourth over but Mohammad Kaif hit some fine shots, particularly off the back foot, and with Laxman put on 89 for the third wicket in good time.

The introduction of Giles changed things, however, tilting the match firmly and finally in England's direction.

It just seems that watching Flintoff, everything is possible From RG Have your say on TMS

He took 3-26, Laxman bunting a strange shot to short extra cover, Kaif (51) top-edging a sweep and Rohan Gavaskar yorked as the pressure began to tell.

By the time Gavaskar was out, Rahul Dravid had fallen tamely to Alex Wharf.

All that was required then was for Gough to clean up the tail, and he managed three more wickets before Balaji and Harbhajan put on 64 for the last wicket.

Flintoff eventually bowled Balaji, giving England a well-deserved win.

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.