With the Bangladesh-England encounter on June 1, Champions Trophy started with a bang! The match saw more than 600 runs scored which is a hint as to how the tournament would proceed and how the pitches are going to behave for the majority of the tournament unless rains play the spoil game.
After winning the toss and deciding to bowl first, England failed to pick up a single wicket within the first 10 overs which sort of provided the right kind of start and momentum to Bangladesh. Tamim Iqbal was the highlight of the Bangladesh innings scoring a brilliant century a 128 runs of 142 balls almost playing the innings through thereby making job a lot easier for the other batsmen. Iqbal was well supported by Mushfiqur Rahim who was the more aggressive partner in over a 100 run stand. Bangladesh managed 305 runs in their quota of 50 overs.
In reply England did not have the best of starts and J Roy departed only after scoring 1 run but after that it was all about England. Just when the required run rate crept near 7 runs an over Joe Root and Eoin Morgan accelerated and finished the game with 16 balls remaining. Root stole the show with a fantastic career-best century keeping the England Team ahead in the game, at all times.
Let’s have a look at a few turning points of the game.
1. Tamim Iqbal Hungs In
Although the south paw did not have the most fluent of starts Tamim hung in there and eventually made up for it. That was the key in the innings, Tamim’s innings allowed the other batsmen to revolve around him and the score easily went past 300 which was a challenging total in any circumstance.
2. Bangladesh stutter in last 5
Bangladesh only managed 46/4 in the last 5 overs despite being in a good situation till the 45th over with 2 set batsmen going into the final 5, but they kept losing wickets trying to accelerate. That very well made the difference between 305 and a 325-330.
3. Mustafizur Rehman goes wicketless, two 100 runs partnerships
Although the England team do not start well, they don’t lose wickets at regular intervals and stay ahead in the game because of partnerships. Eventually England get over the line quite comfortably courtesy brilliant knocks of Joe Root, Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan.
