Carberry leads the way

Andrew Flintoff fields the ball during England Lions' victory over Mumbai © Getty Images

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Michael Carberry enhanced his fast-growing reputation with another century to set up England Lions’ tense three-wicket win over Mumbai.

The left-hander hit a fine 103 as the tourists went some way to making amends for their Duleep Trophy exit with victory with a ball to spare in the first of three hastily-arranged one-day matches.

The game at the Brabourne Stadium also marked Andrew Flintoff’s return to action after five months out with ankle trouble.

Though he scored just four and did not bowl, the all-rounder took a catch at second slip and suffered no adverse reaction to 50 overs in the field on his first appearance since England's clash with India in the ICC Twenty20 last September.

Carberry’s hundred - his second of a tour which has also seen him make 91 in the opening warm-up game and 112 against Central Zone - was the centrepiece of the Lions’ successful pursuit of 269.

There were also useful contributions from Jonathan Trott (40) and James Hildreth (38), but it needed an unbeaten 22 off 12 deliveries from Adil Rashid - and a Liam Plunkett six off the penultimate ball of the match - to ease the nerves in the Lions dressing room.

Earlier, Alan Richardson returned figures of 3-36, and Plunkett and Rashid shared four wickets, to restrict the hosts to 268 for eight.

ECB performance director David Parsons, who is leading the Lions tour, told ecb.co.uk: "It was quite tense in the end - we left it til the last minute.

"There was a time when we seemed to be going along quite nicely, but they pegged us back in the middle of the innings, so we’re really pleased to have won."