Stand-in captain Bell cuts loose before Lions are tied up

Bell, who captained the side in the absence of Alastair Cook, raced to 158 off 143 balls with one six and 20 fours out of 343-8 in 50 overs.

But India's ninth-wicket pair of Wriddhiman Saha and Abhimanyu Mithun scrambled a bye off the last ball to level the scores.

A splendid century from India opener Abhinav Mukund laid the platform for the dramatic finale.

It means the two sides will meet again in the final at the same venue tomorrow with West Indies A having been eliminated.

Bell has not played a one-day international for the senior England side since November 2008 against India in Bangalore.

But the Warwickshire batsman showed he will take on Bangladesh in prime form if selected as he surpassed his previous highest List A score of 137 for his county against Yorkshire at Edgbaston in 2005.

He reached his sixth one-day century off 117 balls but then moved up a gear in reaching his third 50 off only 21 deliveries.

India openers Shikhar Dhawan (44) and Mukund putt on 79 in only 10 overs before the former drove Liam Plunkett to cover.

Mukund reached 114 with 12 fours before being bowled trying to cut Ravi Bopara.

India refused to buckle and 12 were needed for victory off the final over from Bopara and Iqbal Abdulla hit the fourth ball to the boundary to bring the runs required tally down to three.

He was run out off the next ball attempting a second run and it was left to Saha (36 no) and Mithun to scramble the bye.

Maurice Chambers returned career-best figures to inspire a fine fightback by Essex against Championship title-chasing Nottinghamshire at Chelmsford.

The 22-year-old fast bowler finished with 6-68 as the visitors had to settle for a modest first-innings lead of 26 after being bowled out for 180.

Then John Maunders, Jaik Mickleburgh and Matt Walker built upon his fine work by scoring half-centuries as Essex reached the close on 265-4 to establish an overall advantage of 239.

Pakistan beat Australia by 11 runs in the second Twenty20 international at Edgbaston to wrap up a 2-0 series win.

After Kamran Akmal's 33 from 25 balls helped Pakistan post 162-9, Australia fell short on 151 all out from 19.4 overs.