Cardiff: England thrashed Bangladesh by 106 runs in the World Cup match here at Sophia Gardens on Saturday.
Under pressure Bangladesh couldn’t stand against England’s seventh consecutive 300-plus knock in One-day International cricket and third successive in the ongoing World Cup 2019.
After the English batsmen played brilliantly to first set a massive total of 386 against the visitors, bolwers too struck as Ben stokes, who failed to perform with bat grabbed three wickets. Alongwith stokes Jofra Archer (3/29) and Mark Wood (2/48) helped their team to broke the batting order of Bangladesh by not allowing them to spend much time on the crease.
While chasing a target, Bangladesh started poorly and lost their first wicket on a score of eight runs in 3.2 over. Soumya Sarkar was bowled by Eoin Morgan on Mark wood’s ball.
Tamim Iqbal with new Batsman Shakib Al Hasan sticthed a 55-run-partnership for the second wicket giving some relief to players as well as fans, but he too could last for long and fell to Mark Wood in 12th over.
However, Hasan who played handsomely and scored 121 runs off 119 balls with the help of 12 fours and 1 six, but it went in vain as the none of the batsmen from the other end supported him.
Mushfiqur Rahim (44) and Hasan added 106 runs and tried to come back in the match, but Liam Plunkett struck and broke the much needed partership in the 29th over. Rahim was caught by Jason Roy on Plunkett’s ball.
From there none of the batsmen able contribute much and walked to pavilion one after another.
Mahmudullah (28), Mosadedek Hossain (26), Mohammad Saifuddin (5) Mehedi Hasan (12) scored respectively while Mohammad Mithun and Mushtafizur Rahman were dismissed for a duck. Mashrafe Mortaza remained unbeaten with four runs.
Earlier, after being invited to bat, England with the help of tremendous knock by Jason Roy (153 runs off 121 balls) and exemplary batting by other batsmen posted a mammoth total of 386 runs.
The hosts got off to a flying start as the opening pair of Jason and Bairstow thrashed Bangladesh bowlers and added 128 runs for the first wicket.
Finally, in the 19.1 over, Bangladesh got a chance to quench their wicket thirst, when Mashrafe Mortaza sent Bairstow back to the hut on a score of 51 runs off 50 balls.
Later, Joe Root, who joined Roy after Bairstow dismissal supported from the other end and the duo stitched a 77-run-partnership for the second wicket. Root (21) was heading towards a big total, but unfortunately his journey came to an end in the 31.3 over, when Mohammad Saifuddin showed him the way to pavilion. With this wicket Bangladesh got a relief as Root is in excellent form, and would have been proven dangerous, if he had managed to stay on the crease.
Soon, Roy journey also came to an end when he departed in the 34.4 over leaving England on a score of 253/3. He was caught by Mashrafe Mortaza on Mehedi Hasan’s ball. Roy inning included 14 fours and 5 sixes.
After 34.4 over, Jos Butller and Eoin Morgan played handsomely and kept the score board running. The duo stitched a 95-run-partnership for the fourth wicket. Butller did his job brilliantly and scored 64 runs off 43 balls with the help of 2 fours and 4 sixes before falling to Saifuddin.
On the other hand, Morgan too scored runs for his team and scored 35 runs off 32 balls with the help of 1 four and 2 sixes.
Like other batsmen Ben stokes couldn’t score much and was dismissed on a score of 6 runs in 47.1 over, when the hosts were on a respectable score of 341 runs.
Both Cris Woakes (46*) and Liam plunkett (27*) added 45 runs in the last three overs and took England to 386 runs. (UNI)
