Zimbabwe's resilience showed through the Kennington gloom as they fought back from a position of almost despair to beat England by five wickets in the NatWest Series limited-overs match at The Oval to move comfortably to the top of the triangular tournament table.

Earlier in the day England had appeared to be in a commanding position as Marcus Trescothick (79), showing much promise on his debut, and Graeme Hick (50) to the score to 150-2.

A rain-break made all the difference and, thereafter, the home batsmen struggled against Paul Strang (3-26) and Grant Flower (3-9) to be dismissed for 207 runs. It did not appear to be enough on a pitch which was essentially good for batting, and so it proved ot be.

Zimbabwe stuttered to 9-2 but captain Andy Flower (61) found firm support from his predecessor Alistair Campbell (80), who regained much of the form which recently it was feared he had lost, in a 106 runs fourth-wicket partnership which turned the match.

Campbell was duly nominated Man of the Match.