Stand-in skipper Marcus Trescothick warned England would have to raise their game against Australia for the remainder of the season after a shoddy fielding display in a five-wicket win against Bangladesh at Headingley.
The result set up an Anglo-Australian Triangular Series final at Lord's on Saturday and ended Bangladesh's interest in the tournament ahead of their final group match against Australia at Canterbury tomorrow.
England missed four chances on Sunday and saw fast bowler Simon Jones start with four successive wides.
All-rounder Andrew Flintoff eventually restored order with four for 29, including two in two balls, as Bangladesh were held to 208 for seven.
In reply Andrew Strauss's 98 saw England to the brink of victory before the left-handed opener was bowled trying to slog a boundary for his hundred with England needing one more run to win.
Trescothick, deputizing for the injured Michael Vaughan who was still out with the groin injury that forced him to miss last Thursday's 57-run defeat against world champions Australia at Chester-le-Street, was concerned by England's slipshod start.
And with Australia now England's only opponents for the rest of the summer, the Somerset left-hander warned his team-mates they could not afford similar lapses when the sides met in yesterday's "dead" day-nighter at Edgbaston.
"It took us about 15 to 20 overs really to get going before we'd switched on to playing the sort of cricket we have been over the past couple of months," Trescothick said after Sunday's match.
"If we take 20 overs to get going against Australia they are going to hurt us," he said, having already accepted his share of the blame for fielding first at Chester-le-Street.
"We can't play against Australia for the rest of the summer and not be as good as we have been," said Trescothick, a member of the team that this month thrashed Ricky Ponting's side by 100 runs in a Twenty20 international at the Rose Bowl and also defeated them by three wickets in the Triangular at Bristol.
England overpowered Bangladesh by an innings in both their two Tests and had already recorded two crushing wins (by 10 wickets and 168 runs respectively) over the Tigers in the Triangular before Sunday's game.
Flintoff, who sustained an ankle injury that ruled him out of the one-day internationals in South Africa earlier this year, is widely regarded as vital to English hopes of ending a run of eight successive Ashes Test-series defeats.
Strauss was fortunate to come through a frenetic start which saw him dropped on 14 before he regained his composure only to lose it at the end.
"Twos don't count if you need one to win but going for a massive hack is probably not the best way to do it. But it's not something that's important to me," Strauss said.
Opener Javed Omar top scored with 81 for Bangladesh who at least had the satisfaction of batting out their 50 overs after Australia gained revenge on Saturday for last week's shock defeat in Cardiff by dismissing the Tigers for just 139.
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