After a below par performance in the tournament opener, the defending champions played a nearly perfect match to hand Bangladesh a heavy defeat. Batting first after losing the toss, England put on 364 runs on the board, and then bundled out Bangladesh on 227 to win the match by 137 runs. This was the highest ever score in Dharamsala in an ODI match. Let’s have a look at the highlights of the game.
Dawid Malan went berserk
Dawid Malan didn’t take any long to justify his place in the England World Cup squad. After missing out against New Zealand in the tournament opener, the southpaw dismantled Bangladesh bowling attack with an array of shots all around the ground. With 16 fours and 5 sixes, Malan scored his 6 ODI ton in just 23rd innings. First with Johny Bairstow who scored 52 runs, and then with Joe Root who scored 82, Malan put on two century stands to pave England’s way to a mammoth total.
The highlights of Malan’s fluent knock was his onslaught against off spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz, when Malan smashed Miraz for 20 runs in four consecutive balls in 33rd over of the innings. It was special from the left hander because being a right arm off spinner Miraz was expected to be challenging for Malan. He scored 39 off 22 against Miraz to nullify the biggest threat against him in this match. Deservedly, Dawid Malan adjudged man of the match for his brilliant knock.
England’s choke and Bangladesh’s comeback
Having scored 298 runs in 40 overs with 7 wickets in hand, one could expect England to go big in the last 10 overs and put on a huge score on board, but the things went opposite, as England could only muster 66 runs in the last 10 overs and lost 6 wickets during the course. Shoriful Islam was the central figure for Bangladesh who sent back Joe Root and Liam Livingstone in successive deliveries to peg England back, and then Mahedi Hasan took 3 wickets in 3 overs giving away just 22 runs.
Shakib Al Hasan shone amidst the carnage
Amidst a strong batting display from England batters, Shakib Al Hasan stood tall to deliver yet another stellar performance with the ball. With a spell of 10-0-52-1, the Bangladeshi captain was able to stem the run flow to some extent.
In 8 overs out of 10 Shakib spent 6 or less runs. Also, Shakib was the man with a breakthrough when the opening partnership of England was going strong with 115 runs on the board, and one can imagine what a set Johny Bairstow could do.
Reece Topley topples the Bangladeshi top order
Chasing a big total, a strong start was much needed for Bangladesh, but comeback man Reece Topley had other ideas. The tall left arm pacer didn’t waste any time to breach into Bangladeshi top order and sent back Tanzid Hasan and in form Nazmul Hossain shanto in successive deliveries in his first over. He didn’t stop here and also castled Shakib Al Hasan with a peach of a delivery to push Bangladesh chase in tatters.
The setback from Topley up front proved to be too much for Bangladesh as they didn’t ever look to chase the target and lost comprehensively in the end. Topley finished with a spell of 10-01-43-4.
A little defiance from Litton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim
Having lost four wickets for 49 runs, Bangladesh was heading towards an even bigger defeat, but Litton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim gave Bangladeshi fans something to cheer up with a partnership of 72 runs off 75 balls. Litton Das who came to open the innings batted in a fluent way as he scored 76 off 66 balls, with 7 fours and 2 sixes. On the other hand, Rahim scored 51 off 64 balls to help Bangladesh salvage some pride.
