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Bairstow slams century as England set Hyderabad 368 for win

Jonny Bairstow slammed an unbeaten century as England XI produced a dominating batting display to amass a mammoth 367 for four against Hyderabad XI in their second 50-over warm-up match on Tuesday.

Hyderabad: Jonny Bairstow slammed an unbeaten century as England XI produced a dominating batting display to amass a mammoth 367 for four against Hyderabad XI in their second 50-over warm-up match on Tuesday.
Coming onto bat at number five, Bairstow stole the show with a whirlwind 104-run knock off just 58 deliveries after captain Alastair Cook (85 off 74), Craig Kieswetter (71 off 86) and Jonathan Trott (74 off 68) gave England a solid start. Bairstow used his long-handle to great effect and smashed a sorry-looking Hyderabad attack to all parts of the ground from the word go. He hit as many as six boundaries and eight sixes en route his unconquered innings. The visitors made up for their poor batting performance in the first practice game as Cook and Kieswetter shared quickfire 159 runs in 104 deliveries for the opening wicket after opting to bat. While Cook was aggressive at the top, smacking 11 fours and a six, Kieswetter played the role of a shit-anchor with three boundaries and as many hits over the fence. Left-arm pacer Mehdi Hasan (3/63) snarred all the three English wickets -- Cook, Kieswetter and Kevin Pietersen (10) -- with Trott becoming a run out victim. If the 159-run opening stand was not enough, Bairstow and Trott added to Hyderabad`s misery by stitching 143 runs for the fourth wicket in just 95 deliveries to take England past the 35-mark. Hyderabad, who failed to overhaul England`s modest 219-run target in the first warm-up match, will now have to produce a spell-binding batting effort to get over the imposing total. PTI