JONATHAN Trott made a successful return to his native South Africa in the colours of England yesterday.

His 85 helped his adopted country make a winning start to their tour with a convincing 185-run victory over the Diamond Eagles in Bloemfontein.

The Cape Town-born batsman was one of three players to pass 50 for England, and he shared a 123-run partnership with captain Andrew Strauss (72), while a quick-fire unbeaten 67 from Eoin Morgan helped the visitors reach 294 for seven.

The home side failed to get going with Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Sajid Mahmood, Graeme Swann and Paul Collingwood all taking two wickets apiece to dismiss their opponents for 109.

The victory will be an extremely satisfying one for coach Andy Flower with most of his players showing promising signs in the first of three warm-up games before the opening Twenty20 international next Friday.

After losing the toss and being asked to bat, Trott and Strauss helped England recover from the early loss of Joe Denly as the opener was yorked by CJ de Villiers in the fifth over.

Trott set out his marker from the start with two boundaries in the same over.

The pair raised their 50 partnership from 55 balls, followed by the skipper’s own half-century from 62 balls, which came with an excellent reverse sweep off slow leftarmer Con de Lange.

With the the century partnership coming from 116 deliveries England looked on course for a massive total.

Trott completed a 66-ball 50 with a deflected single down to fine leg, but the introduction of Ryan Bailey brought an end to Strauss’ 85-ball knock as he holed out to Victor Mpitsang on the deep square-leg boundary.

Paul Collingwood perished for eight, but Trott and Morgan put on a quick 32 to re-inject some momentum.

Trott blew his chance to start the tour with a century when he played Bailey on to his stumps.

England seemed to be losing their way but Morgan was given good support from Matt Prior (19 off 22 balls) and Luke Wright (24 off 11).

The hosts made the worst possible start to their reply with veteran Morne van Wyk out second ball when he edged Broad to Swann at second slip.

Rilee Rossouw took three fours from the remainder of the over, but Broad had his revenge in his next over when the young batsman hung out his bat and was caught by Prior for 17.

Anderson then sent Boeta Dippenaar (11) on his way – the Eagles captain landing an inside-edge onto his stumps to leave his side at 32 for three.

Mahmood, back playing for England for the first time since the 2007 World Cup, was introduced to the attack in the ninth over, but it was Anderson at the other end who was causing all the problems.

He grabbed his second wicket in the 10th over when he had Elgar caught behind.

The hosts raised their 50 with a spanking shot from opener Reeza Hendricks, but in the next over he fell leg before wicket to Mahmood.

Scoreboard

Eagles v England At Bloemfontein

England Innings

A J Strauss c Mpitsang b Bailey .........72

J L Denly b de Villiers .......................... 3

I J Trott b Bailey ...................................85

P D Collingwood c Bailey b de Lange 8

E J Morgan not out ..............................67

M J Prior c Elgar b du Preez ...............19

L J Wright run out ................................24

S C Broad run out ...............................11

Extras (lb2 w2 nb1 pens 0) .....5

Total 7 wkts Innings Complete (50 overs)............294

Fall: 1-10 2-133 3-154 4-186 5-229 6-273 7-294

Did Not Bat: G P Swann, J M Anderson, S I Mahmood.

Bowling: de Villiers 7-0-54-1. Mpitsang 8- 0-46-0. du Preez 8-0-53-1. de Lange 10-0- 50-1. Tshabalala 10-0-51-0. Bailey 5-0-27- 2. Elgar 2-0-11-0.

Eagles Innings

M N van Wyk c Swann b Broad .......... 0

R R Hendricks lbw b Mahmood ..........15

R R Rossouw c Prior b Broad .............17

H H Dippenaar b Anderson .................11

D Elgar c Prior b Anderson ................. 4

R T Bailey b Mahmood ........................15

C D de Lange st Prior b Swann ...........10

D du Preez b Swann ............................16

C J de Villiers c Mahmood b Collingwood . 2

T Tshabalala not out ............................11

P V Mpitsang b Collingwood ............... 2

Extras (b1 lb1 w4 pens 0) .......6

Total (26.4 overs).................109

Fall: 1-0 2-19 3-32 4-43 5-52 6-67 7-93 8- 96 9-96

Bowling: Broad 4-0-28-2. Anderson 6-1- 18-2. Mahmood 6-1-21-2. L J Wright 2-0- 16-0. Swann 5-1-15-2. Collingwood 3.4-0- 9-2.

England beat Eagles by 185 runs.