Flintoff does it again for England

Even Andrew Flintoff needed an outrageous slice of luck before he could brighten up England's cleansweep victory over Bangladesh in Dhaka today.

Flintoff finished with an unbeaten 52 - his third undefeated half-century of this limitedovers series - as Michael Vaughan's team completed a hattrick of seven-wicket victories against Bangladesh.

And, to absolutely no-one's surprise, Flintoff was called forward yet again after the contest to receive his third man-of-the-match award - and fifth in six games stretching back to last summer.

But the Lancashire all-rounder's golden run would surely have ended under the National Stadium floodlights if he had been given out stumped for 29.

Aiming to sweep left-arm spinner Manjaral Islam, Flintoff missed and barely stretched his foot back onto the line, never mind beyond it. For some reason, though, the third umpire gave him the benefit of the doubt after studying TV replays.

That bizarre decision had no real bearing on the result because England were only 31 runs from victory at the time with 14 overs remaining. But at least it allowed Flintoff to finish an increasingly tedious contest in a bit of style.

Having already hit the 45th six of his one-day international career to beat Ian Botham's England record, the 25-year-old cleared the rope three more times following his reprieve and ended the contest with two consecutive big hits off Hannan Sarkar. It was more of a contest today, however, because Bangladesh managed to post a total of 182, their biggest of the series, and then bowled and fielded with real passion.