Nottingham, England, September 9 (NDTV.COM) Andrew Strauss survived an early scare to score 78 and Ian Bell hammered an unbeaten 86 to guide England over Pakistan by eight wickets and its first limited-overs triumph in 11 games on Friday.

The England captain shared a century partnership with Bell as England easily passed Pakistan's 235-8 with 22 balls to spare at Trent Bridge. Kevin Pietersen made 41 not out and struck the winning boundary as England shrugged off its poor early form by hitting 237-2.

Having lost 5-0 to Sri Lanka and three times to Pakistan in one-day and Twenty20 games, England can tie the series at 2-2 by winning the fifth and final one-day international at Edgbaston on Sunday. The opening game in Cardiff was declared a no result because of rain.

Strauss was on five when Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was convinced he caught him at first slip. Strauss refused to move, however, convinced the ball had not carried to him and the umpires, having seen TV replays, gave him not out.

Chants of "cheat, cheat" from the England fans rained down on the Pakistan captain, who already faces two disciplinary charges relating to a ball-tampering ruling at the end of the fourth test at The Oval.

Having escaped, Strauss went on to hit 10 fours in his 88-ball innings although he lost opening partner Ed Joyce with England on 38. Replacing the out-of-form Marcus Trescothick, who had been dropped for the first time after 123 one-day appearances, Joyce edged a catch to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal on 13.

Bell struck Abdul Razzaq for three fours in a row and, although Inzamam kept changing his bowling attack to try and unsettle them, he and Strauss had few scares as they compiled a partnership of 110 in 20 overs.

It was finally broken when off-break bowler Mohammad Hafeez, the seventh bowler used by Pakistan, bowled Strauss round his legs with England on 148. Strauss hit 10 fours and, by the time the captain and opener was out, his team needed 88 off 20.1 overs.

Bell moved on to 76 before he survived a chance, Razzaq dropping a knee-high catch off his own bowling.

Inzamam won the toss for the fourth time in a row and this time decided to bat first in the day-night game. Before the lights came on, Razzaq hit five sixes in an unbeaten 75 to lift Pakistan from 117-6 to post a challenging score.

Left arm spinner Michael Yardy marked his debut with 3-24 to spark a mid-innings Pakistan collapse. But Razzaq attacked the England bowling in the closing overs scoring his runs off only 72 balls. His five sixes all came in the last two overs as he and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, who made nine, shared an unbroken ninth-wicket partnership of 70.

In a disastrous next-to-last over of the innings from Sajid Mahmood, Razzaq hit two sixes and a four and the bowler gave away four wides and four leg byes for a total of 25 runs.

Razzaq then hit three more sixes in the final over from Jon Lewis.

A fourth-wicket stand of 74 between Inzamam (47) and Mohammed Yousuf (29) enabled Pakistan to recover from 17-2 and 41-3. But three wickets fell for only two runs in two overs from spinners Yardy and James Dalrymple as Pakistan then slipped to 117-6. (AP)