After a tough loss against New Zealand, England was once again put into bat by Bangladesh. The defending champions scored 364 runs in the first innings against Bangladesh. Here is a recap of the first innings.
England controls the powerplay
Except for a close review call against Dawid Malan, the defending champions looked mostly in control against Bangladesh in the powerplay. Both openers, Jonny Bairstow and Malan scored boundaries to start their innings. On the first ball of the fifth over, Malan survived a close review by Bangladesh. Malan was trying to pull a short delivery from Mustafizur Rahman but was rushed by the quicker delivery. There was a definite sound which came off the shoulder instead of the bat. In the same over, Malan smashed a four and a six off Mustaifzur’s over. Malan smashed another six off Mustaifzur’s next over. England scored 61 runs in the first 10 overs.
The scoring rate got higher after the powerplay as the defending champion scored 47 runs in the next five overs. Malan brought up his half-century in the 14th over in just 39 balls. Bairstow too brought up his half-century in the 16th over in 54 balls. This was Bairstow’s third half-century in World Cups. He was soon dismissed by Shakib al Hasan in the 18th over breaking the 115-run opening stand.
Root and Malan take control of the innings
The Bangladeshi bowlers kept it tight for a while allowing only 13 runs from the 22nd to 25th over. Joe Root ramped Mustafizur for a six in the 26th over and brought up the 50-run stand by taking a single on the next ball. In the following over he smashed Shakib for two fours. Malan then smashed a four to move into the 90s. Malan brought up his century in the 32nd over in just 91 balls. Shakib bowled out his 10 overs ending with figures of 10-0-52-1. Malan now has four centuries in 2023. He now has the joint most centuries in a calendar year and needs just one more to overtake David Gower (1983) and Jonny Bairstow (2018). In the following over, Malan hit two fours and sixes each as Mehidy Hasan Miraz leaked 22 runs off his first over of the new spell. Root brought up his half-century with a boundary in the next over in 44 balls.
Root overtook Graham Gooch and now has the most runs for an English batter in World Cups. Mahedi Hasan dismissed the centurion, Malan in the 38th over. Malan scored 140 runs in 107 balls hitting 16 fours and five sixes. This is now the fourth-highest score for an English batter in World Cups. A 20-run cameo from Jos Buttler came to an end as Shoriful Islam dismissed the English skipper with a knuckle ball.
Bangladesh apply brakes with continuous wickets
England had scored 298 runs for the loss of three wickets at the end of the 40th over. Joe Root was looking set with 80 runs to his name in 63 balls and was joined by youngster, Harry Brook. In just the second over of the death overs phase, Shoriful Islam took two wickets in two balls dismissing the set batter, Root and Liam Livingstone. The chances of getting 400 got slimmer with the two consecutive wickets. Shakib took the brave call to get the spinner, Mahedi Hasan to bowl the 45th over. The move paid out as Hasan dismissed Brook on just the third ball of his over. Litton Das at long-off completed the catch. Mahedi dismissed Sam Curran in his next over thanks to a great catch from Najmul Hossain Shanto. Mahedi completed his four-fer by dismissing Adil Rashid thanks to a relay catch from Towhid Hridoy and Shanto.
