BANGLADESH gave themselves a morale-boosting lift for the NatWest Series with England and Australia by defeating Worcestershire in a 50-over warm-up match at New Road.

It was the first victory of the current tour for Dav Whatmore's side, who reached a modest target of 169 with 14 overs and four wickets to spare.

It was not the send-off Worcestershire director of cricket Tom Moody would have wanted before he leaves the county later this week to become national coach of Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh needed a modest run rate of 3.38 per over but ran into early trouble against Worcestershire debutant Shoaib Akhtar and Nadeem Malik.

Malik made the initial breakthrough when he bowled Shahriar Nafees for a duck, and then Shoaib struck with the final ball of his second over to have wicketkeeper Rajin Saleh caught behind.

It became 24-3 when Tushar Imran edged David Wigley to second slip, and at that stage Worcestershire looked set for a convincing victory.

But a stand of 82 in 13 overs between Javed Omar and Mohammad Ashraful swung the match in favour of the tourists.

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib caused problems in an opening spell of 4-1-4-1.

But he came in for punishment when he returned, conceding five fours in 10 balls.

It was slow left-armer Ray Price who broke the stand at 106 when Omar (43) mis-timed a sweep to square-leg. Then a superb catch by Stephen Peters at point accounted for Ashraful (40) off Malik.

Price struck for the second time when he bowled Aftab Ahmed to leave the game in the balance at 125-6, with 44 more runs still needed. But captain Habibul Bashar and Manjural Islam kept their heads to ensure victory for Bangladesh with an unbroken partnership of 44.

Worcestershire had earlier elected to bat but struggled to come to terms with the pace of Tapash Baisya, Hossain and gentler fare of Khaled Mahmud as they were routed for 168 in 44.1 overs.

Worcestershire were on the back foot from the moment previously in-form Stephen Moore had his off stump knocked out by Hossain with 19 on the board.

The only major stand saw Smith and Zander de Bruyn, who top-scored with 34, add 53 for the third wicket.

n All tickets for Worcestershire's first Twenty20 Cup match at New Road against Warwickshire Bears on Wednesday, June 22 have been sold.