The heavily marketed and eagerly awaited ICC Champions Trophy
kicked off with hosts England taking on Bangladesh at the Kennington Oval.
The game was viewed by England as an opportunity to get back at Bangladesh who had unceremoniously dumped them out of the 2015 World Cup in the group stage.
England won the toss and Captain Eoin Morgan had no hesitation in asking a
Bangladesh side who had been bundled out for 84 runs against India in a warm up
at this very venue to bat first. Bangladesh started of cautiously and had
notched up just 6 runs in the first 4 overs before unleashing an attack on the
English seamers. They reached the 80 run mark in 15 overs.
Opener Tamim Iqbal (128 of 142 balls) negated the threat of
the new ball and played a brilliant One Day innings that we have been deprived
of in this era of power hitting. The knock, though slow anchored the innings
and was a factor in Bangladesh having a solid platform and being able to cross
300. At 261-2 in 44.3 overs with 2 set batsmen in Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur
Rahim (79 of 72 balls) at the crease, Bangladesh
seemed set to reach 320 or more, but lost the duo in the next two balls. The
new batsmen had to go for the big shots immediately upon arrival and lost their
wickets without causing much damage.
With wickets falling at regular intervals, the innings didn’t
have that final flourish and they ended up scoring 305 of the allotted 50 overs.
Set a total of 306 to win, England lost opener Jason Roy(1
of 8 balls) early, but Joe Root(133 of 129 balls) came in and was a part of two
huge century stands with Alex Hales(95 of 86 balls) and captain Eoin Morgan(75
of 61 balls) that saw England cross the finish line for the loss of just 2
wickets, with 2.4 overs left.
England have a health +0.40 run rate and will be upbeat
ahead of their next game against New Zealand. Bangladesh have it all to do in a
make or break clash against Australia.
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