Bangladesh's inaugural full tour to England ended with a six-wickets defeat by Australia at Canterbury, but Ricky Ponting's side looked well undercooked as they prepare for Saturday's one-day final against England at Lord's.

Ponting himself made a much needed return to form, having made only 62 runs in four previous innings in the competition and looked uncertain in the early stages of his innings.

But he eventually blossomed and went onto make 66 from 95 balls with five fours before lofting Mashrafe Mortaza to Tushar Imran on the midwicket boundary.

Ponting shared in a fourth wicket stand of 85 in 21 overs with Michael Clarke to put Australia back on an even keel after they had slumped to 83-3 in pursuit of a 251 target.

Adam Gilchrist had made 45 from 36 balls with one six and seven fours but Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn fell cheaply.

After Ponting's dismissal Clarke (80*) and Andrew Symonds (42*) powered Australia to victory with 11 balls to spare with an unbroken stand of 86 in 13 overs.

Bangladesh had been indebted to career best one-day scores from opener Shahriar Nafees and Khaled Mashud for enabling them to post a respectable total of 250-8 after they had been in deep trouble at 75-5.

Nafees, in only his fourth limited overs international, looked a fine prospect and he played sensibly in making 75 off 116 balls with six boundaries.

He shared in a sixth wicket stand of 94 in 20 overs with Mashud before edging Shane Watson to Gilchrist - one of five catches taken by the Australian wicketkeeper.

After the dismissal of Mohammad Rafique (15), Mashud found another able partner in Khaled Mahmud and they added 57 in seven overs.

Mahmud (22) fell to the last ball of the innings to leave Mashud unbeaten on 71 from 105 balls with four fours.

The top order batting had struggled against Watson (3-43) and Brett Lee although overall the latter proved expensive with his two wickets costing 62 runs from 10 overs.

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (capt), Javed Omar, Shahriar Nafees, Tushar Imran, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mashrafe Mortaza, Tapash Baisya, Khaled Mahmud.

Australia: RT Ponting (capt) , AC Gilchrist, ML Hayden, DR Martyn, A Symonds, MEK Hussey, MJ Clarke, SR Watson, B Lee, JN Gillespie, MS Kasprowicz.

30 Jun, 2005