Cricket: Your pace bowlers are OK but your spinners are ordinary; TOUR OF SRI LANKA & BANGLADESH ..WHAT 18-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLBOY STAR IQBAL SAID ABOUT ENGLAND.

Byline: Mike Walters

SCHOOLBOY Nafees Iqbal spanked England for a century here yesterday and then branded Michael Vaughan's spinners "ordinary".

Wilting in the oppressive heat, some of Vaughan's bowlers needed 14 pints of water during the opening day of their tour match against Bangladesh's A team.

In the end, England were satisfied to bowl out the home side for 242, but after 18-year-old Iqbal's 118 from just 168 balls, it was a case of sorting out the Nafees from the naff.

Fresh from passing his A-levels, Iqbal was scathing about the limited threat posed by Ashley Giles and Gareth Batty, who are expected to figure prominently in next week's first Test.

Iqbal said: "England's pace bowlers were quite good, but the spinners were very ordinary.

"Ashley Giles is a world-class bowler, but I thought he would be more effective and I was annoyed to get out when I did - I should have pushed on towards 150."

Giles has a fine record on the subcontinent including 17 wickets in three Tests against Pakistan in 2000 and five for 67 against India in Ahmedabad.

But there was no doubting the quality of Iqbal's stroke play until he finally holed out to Graham Thorpe off Batty on the long-on boundary after hitting a six and 14 boundaries.

For good measure, Iqbal then predicted England could be on the wrong end of Bangladesh's first Test win in 25 attempts.

He added: "Bangladesh have played some good cricket in their last couple of Tests. I expect them to beat England."

England were forced to make a last-minute change after Mark Butcher suffered a throat infection, but they appeared on course to make quick work of their rivals when Steve Harmison reduced them to 17 for two. Harmison worked up such a head of steam that he was guzzling a bottle of water after every over of his fiery opening spell.

But once Iqbal had seen off the new ball, there was little penetration in England's attack.

Richard Johnson looked rusty, Matthew Hoggard's figures of 11-8-19-1 were sabotaged by conceding 14 runs in one over and Rikki Clarke was innocuous.

It took the return of Harmison with the second new ball and the introduction of Paul Collingwood to polish off the home side.

Collingwood removed tail-ender Mosiddek Hossain with his first ball, while Clarke was the only bowler to finish wicketless.

England assistant coach Mike Watkinson said: "You are never going to blast Asian batsmen out on pitches like this and they made us work very hard for our wickets.

"Today the heat and the humidity were turned up and we are weighing the players at the end of every session to make sure they are not losing too much fluid."

Sometimes hard labour is good preparation for a Test series, but if their bowlers' toil is any yardstick, they will be hard-pressed to force a victory and make it back to their Dhaka hotel in time for their rugby counterparts' kick-off against South Africa tomorrow.

SCOREBOARD

BANGLADESH A First Innings

Iqbal c Thorpe b Batty..................................118 Omar c Read b Harmison..................................0 Ahmed c Clarke b Harmison...........................4 Saleh c Read b Johnson.............................28 Nazimuddin run out.................................11 Muntasir c Vaughan b Giles.......................4 Sagir Hossain b Hoggard..........................0 Sunny c Hussain b Harmison..................25Hossain lbw b Collingwood...................21 Kabir c Read b Johnson........................7 Aziz not out.......................................0 Extras (b7 lb8 w3 nb6 pens 0)...........24 Total (88.5 ov)....................242 Fall: 1-11, 2-17, 3-120, 4-148, 5-175, 6-179, 7-179, 8-219, 9-242.

Bowling: Johnson 13.5-3-35-2; Harmison 10-1-35-3; Hoggard 11-8-19-1; Clarke 11-2-34-0; Giles 21-7-52-1; Batty 17-5-47-1; Collingwood 5-3-5-1.

CAPTION(S):

BASHED: Gareth Batty (left) and Ashley Giles felt the force of Iqbal; SCHOOLBOY STUFF: Teenager Nafees Iqbal cracks another four on his way to reaching 118