Tour match, Kimberley: England 256-2 (40.5 ovs) beat Warriors 254-5 (50 ovs) by eight wickets
Match scorecard

Strauss led from the front for England

Andrew Strauss's fine run of recent form continued as he hit an unbeaten 117 to ease England to an eight-wicket victory against Warriors.

Following his 72 against Eagles, Strauss was ably supported by Joe Denly (82) as England chased down 254 to win.

Graeme Swann was easily the pick of England's bowlers, taking 3-26 as Arno Jacobs (83) top scored for the hosts.

England next have a match against South Africa A on Tuesday before next Friday's first Twenty20 international.

And having romped to two comprehensive victories so far on tour they will hope to keep up their momentum as the tour begins in earnest.

However, while Friday's match against Eagles was an embarrassingly one-sided affair, Warriors did at least offer Strauss's team more of a challenge.

606: DEBATE To stand any chance of winning series against the big boys, we need to be getting centuries from the top 3 on a regular basis LondonIrishTiger

With Jacobs' namesake Davey also hitting a half century, they posted a seemingly competitive 254, though their score could have been higher but for Riaan Jeggels' somnolent run-every-other-ball 30.

And if there was any cause for concern for England it would be that opening bowlers James Anderson and Tim Bresnan failed to take a wicket from their combined 19 overs, which went for 90 in total.

With Sajid Mahmood and Adil Rashid also expensive, it was left to Swann to restrict Warriors and he bowled quite beautifully in the middle overs.

The Nottinghamshire bowler accounted for Jeggels caught and bowled and then combined with Matt Prior to have Colin Ingram and Craig Thyssen stumped.

Arno Jacobs finished undefeated, but England set about the chase in fine style.

Denly, in need of a score having hit a 17-ball three against Eagles, showed far more attacking intent as he hit seven fours and two sixes in an 85-ball innings before holing out to long on off Darryl Brown.

His fall with the score on 175 brought Alastair Cook to the crease and the Essex man looked in good touch with 34 at almost a run a ball before a mistimed pull accounted for his wicket.

It was brilliant to get ourselves off to a good start like that and the more I bat with Straussy, the more I like it Joe Denly

But there were to be no further blips as Paul Collingwood smashed 12 from seven balls to seal victory with 55 balls to spare.

"It was brilliant to get ourselves off to a good start like that and the more I bat with Straussy, the more I like it," Denly said afterwards.

The Kent opener's place may be under threat because of the imminent return to action of Kevin Pietersen, but he insisted the "right and left-hand combination" worked well at the top of the order.

"It is important to get some runs under your belt before the international games start and just have as much time out there as you can," Denly added.

"It was quite tricky to begin with because the pitch is a bit slow and they were bowling cutters which were hard to get away.

"It was really about getting used to the pace of the pitch. Once I did that I felt the more time I spent out there the easier it became for me to time the ball and in the end I was feeling very comfortable."

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