CT 2017, England v/s Bangladesh, 1st Game, Review: England affirm their favourites tag by chasing down 306 in a canter

England are widely tipped as favourites to win the ICC Champions Trophy and on the opening day of the tournament, they vindicated it by winning against Bangladesh by 8 wickets. Set a target of 306, England never looked in trouble and went about the chase very smoothly on the back of an unbeaten 133 by No. 3 batsman Joe Root.

Hales and Root lay perfect platform

When out of form Jason Roy was walking back to the pavilion after being caught behind off skipper Mashrafe Mortaza, England were 6/1 in the third over. Alex Hales and Joe Root then laid the foundation of a steep chase by batting aggressively. They played their shots and made sure that the asking rate never got beyond their control. Hales was the aggressor out of the duo as he reached his half-century in 52 balls with the help of 7 boundaries.

Hales pressed on the accelerator after reaching fifty. He got stuck into Shakib Al Hasan, who has been in indifferent form in the last 12 months, in the 22nd over. A well placed sweep got him a boundary and Hales followed it up with a six over long off while advancing down the wicket to bring the first six of the innings for England. It was young Sabbir Rahman’s turn to feel the heat in the 28th over. Again, Hales hit a four and a six off successive balls and it looked like that he wanted to get to triple figures in a hurry. In an attempt to hit Sabbir out of the attack, Hales wanted to score another boundary off the next ball but found the lone man on the leg side boundary. He departed for a well paced 95 but there was still work to do for the English as they needed 141 runs from 22 overs.

Morgan and Root involved in a match-winning partnership

Skipper Morgan, who has been in outstanding one-day form, joined Root in the middle. Root, till that point, had helped himself to a risk free 66 but he had to make sure that he was there when the last runs were knocked off. Morgan began in typical fashion, looking for ones and twos. Initially, Morgan looked a little desperate to get a move on but after scoring a couple of boundaries, the English skipper batted sensibly to close down the chase in company of his deputy.

Both players were involved in an unbroken 3rd wicket stand of 143 to finish the game with 16 balls to spare. Root became the third English player to record 10 ODI hundreds when he picked 2 runs off Mortaza in the 43rd over to complete a fine hundred which took just 115 balls. He showed his new found big hitting abilities to get 33 runs in the final 14 balls he played to seal a comfortable win for his side.

Earlier, Morgan had put Bangladesh in after winning the toss. Soumya Sarkar (28) lost his wicket to Plunkett after adding 56 runs with Tamim Iqbal for the first wicket. Imrul Kayes joined hands with Tamim at No. 3 to take the Bangladesh score to 95 before Plunkett struck again to send Kayes on his way in the 20th over. The left-hander looked good and struck three boundaries in his knock of 19. At 95/2, England must have been feeling better as Tamim was going great guns at the other end.

Tamim-Mushfiqur partnership propelled Bangladesh for a big score

Mushfiqur then joined hands with Tamim to take the fight forward. Both batted beautifully and Bangladesh were on their way to a big total. Tamim was in imperious touch and completed his 9th ODI ton in the 39th over off 124 balls. It might be a slow innings by today’s standards but Iqbal had a lot of time in hand to catch up. It was the kind of innings Bangladesh needed in a big game to peg back a big side like England. Iqbal scored 28 runs in the next 18 balls before, in quest of quick runs, he skied one off Plunkett to make the long walk back in the 45th over. Musfiqur in the meanwhile played a great hand as well as he added 166 runs for the 3rd wicket with the left-hander. Mushfiqur followed suit to Tamim the very next ball for a fine 72-ball 79. 2 wickets in 2 balls weren’t ideal for Bangladesh as it brought two new batsmen on the crease with 32 balls to go in the innings.

Bangladesh could just add 44 runs in those 32 balls to amass 305 for 6 in their allotted 50 overs. They would be disappointed because they got themselves in a position to get 320-325. England bowled well during the death overs to keep the run scoring in check. Plunkett was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 4/59.

England have begun their campaign positively and look good to seal a spot in the semi-finals. They now face New Zealand on Tuesday at the Sophia Garden in Cardiff.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh- 305 for 6 in 50 overs (Tamim Iqbal 128, Mushfiqur Rahim 79, Liam Plunkett 4/59)

England- 308 for 2 in 47.2 overs (Joe Root 133*, Alex Hales 95, Sabbir Rahman 1/13)