Bairstow is taken by surprise by quickfire century

Bairstow did not take guard until the 32nd over of England’s 367-4, but hit his fifth ball for six – as he had on his match-winning ODI debut in Cardiff last month – and completed a remarkable 53-ball century with his eighth and last maximum from the final delivery of the innings.

The 22-year-old Yorkshireman combined with Jonathan Trott (74) in a stand of 143 in just 16 overs, reviving an England innings which had stuttered slightly after the fine start achieved by openers Alastair Cook (85) and Craig Kieswetter (71) in their own partnership of 159.

There were therefore three half-centuries and a century in an England innings which featured just one relative failure, conspicuously that of Kevin Pietersen, in this final warm-up match before the one-day international series against India.

It seems inconceivable that after his part in a landslide success completed as Borthwick (5-31) and Stuart Meaker (3-31) bowled the opposition out for 114 in only 35.3 overs, Bairstow will be left out of the team for the first of five ODIs here on Friday.

As on his opening night at the SWALEC, he looked a cut above – albeit this time against a less than international class attack – with a wonderful display of clean striking. There were six fours to go with his sixes by the time he crunched his last ball over long-on off Ashish Reddy to top three figures – not that he was any the wiser.

Bairstow said: “This ground only had a little scoreboard which didn’t have individual scores, so I didn’t know about (making a century) until I walked back into the dressing room. I didn’t have a clue. But I got told in the dressing-room, and I was delighted to get that milestone.

“I had no idea at all. I was just ‘in the zone’ – batting every ball as it comes.

“When I got in and found out, I was over the moon.”

Bairstow appeared almost equally pleased with England’s collective performance, and a second successive victory at the Rajiv Ghandi Stadium.

“It was a fantastic, clinical performance by the boys,” he said.

“We’re obviously delighted with the way we started the game and posted that total – on a pitch where we perhaps didn’t score as many as we should in the first game. Maybe the other day, we didn’t adapt quite quick enough. But we did this time.”

If England were a class apart with the bat, young leg-spinner Borthwick and England debutant seamer Meaker did not waste any time with the ball either – inducing a collapse of nine wickets for 29 runs on the way to a 253-run victory.

“Everyone contributed; Scotty Borthwick with his ‘five-for’; Stuart Meaker getting three in the over,” said Bairstow.

“It’s fantastic for those guys coming in.

“Cookie and Kiesy set the platform. Then we went on, Trotty and me, and exploded at the end.”

As for his own contribution – a second highly-significant one after his match-winning innings in Cardiff – Bairstow was disarmingly modest. “As long as I keep on improving in the games and in the nets – and performances like that keep coming – then I’m pleased,” said the Bradford-born wicketkeeper-batsman.

“But on a team level it’s more important that we are happy with a performance before the game later this week.”

Trott fed routinely off an attack featuring only one bowler of any pace, and Bairstow was soon consolidating that lasting impression he made in Wales.

Timing, power and placement saw him race to his 50 in only 33 balls – his fourth six, a straight hit off Teja, taking him past his first landmark.

Trott’s half-century came up in a more sedate but still healthy 45 balls and, in keeping with his clip-and-scurry method, contained only four fours.

Between them, the fourth-wicket pair – and then Samit Patel, after Trott was run out attempting a scampered second – helped the tourists hit 105 from the last 10 overs.

It always seemed sure to be beyond hosts who had given England more of a contest in Saturday’s first warm-up match – and so it proved, especially after Borthwick broke an opening stand of 69 among his 5-8 during a madcap collapse of nine for the addition of just 29.

England’s hopes of hosting an inaugural World Test Championship in 2013 appear to be in serious doubt.

After an International Cricket Council executive board meeting in Dubai it seems the originally scheduled Champions Trophy is a much more likely fixture in the 2013 summer. ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat has been an enthusiastic advocate of the introduction of a Test championship, with the semi-finals and finals to be held in England. But it seems reluctance on the part of broadcasters may scupper the plans.