CT17 : Ruthless England thrash Bangladesh in Champions Trophy opener : England produced a dominating display to start the Champions Trophy 2017 campaign with a thumping 8 wicket win over Bangladesh at Kennington Oval, London just today. Bangladesh started well with Tamim Iqbal scoring 125 while Rahim scored 79. The England team on the back of Joe Root’s century, Eoin Morgan 75, Alex Hales 95 helped the them to trash the visitors by such a big margin.
England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and elected to field at Kennignton Oval, London today. Bangladesh openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar started slowly in the first 3 overs scoring just 6 runs. Soumya Sarkar smashed Jake Ball for two boundaries in the 5th over. Chris Woakes walked off the field by bowling only 2 overs. Slowly both them increased the pace of scoring. At the end of 10 overs, Bangladesh was 36 for 0. After the powerplay overs, Soumya Sarkar was severe on Jake Ball hitting him for 15 runs while Tamim Iqbal scored the single run in the 11th over.
Ben Stokes provided the breakthrough for England picking the wicket of Soumya Sarkar for 28 runs. Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal put on 41 runs before Imrul Kayes was brilliantly caught by Mark Wood on 19. Tamim Iqbal completed his half century in 72 balls. Tamim Iqbal after completing his half century along with Rahim played attacking strokes to put England bowlers under pressure.
With 159 on the board after 30 overs, both Bangladesh batsmen took on the host’s bowlers. Tamim Iqbal completed the first century of tournament in 124 balls while Rahim took 48 balls to complete his half century. Both the batsmen were dismissed during the same over to Plunkett which ended a brilliant 166 runs stand for the 3rd wicket.
After their wickets, the England bowlers picked wickets and also controlled the flow of runs. Sabbir Rahman scored 24 off 15 balls help Bangladesh to go past 300 runs. The tigers finished their innings on 305 for 6.
Chasing the target of 306, England innings got off to a worse start losing the wicket of Jason Roy for just 1 run. Joe Root and Alex Hales steadied the innings with good attacking strokeplay putting the Bangladesh bowlers under pressure. At the end of first 10 overs, England was 51 for 1. Joe Root and Alex Hales continued their brilliant touch with delightful timing.
Both of them made sure that they was no pressure on the hosts. Hales completed his half century in 52 balls. It was a good display of batting by both batsmen. Both of them put on 159 runs for the second wicket as Hales was dismissed for 95.
Joe Root injured while playing a shot but continued to play well with captain Eoin Morgan who came and attacked the Bangladesh bowlers. The captain with Joe Root took singles and hit the bad balls away for boundaries. Root completed his century in 115 balls while Eoin Morgan completed his half century in just 45 balls.
After completing their milestones, both of them looked in complete control and won the match by 8 wickets with 16 balls. Joe Root remained not out on 133 while captain Eoin Morgan not out on 75 in 61 balls. None of Bangladesh was able to put consistent pressure on England batsmen.
England 308 for 2 in 47.2 overs (Joe Root 133, Alex Hales 95, Mortaza 1/56) beat Bangladesh 305 for 6 (Tamim Iqbal 128, Mushfiqur Rahim 79, Liam Plunkett 4/59)
England 2, Bangladesh 0