Bangladesh v England

Fight for Survival

The super eight match on Wednesday was an important match for both the teams Bangladesh and England. A loss for England would have resulted in their ousted from this cricket world cup. In order to survive in this cricket world cup Bangladesh also needed to register a win. Current status of Bangladesh in this cricket world cup was a cause of worry for the English Team. The Bangla team was being responsible for many upsets in this tournament. Thus England had no chance to give complacency a place in their squad.

England won the toss

Michael Vaughan won the toss for England. They went ahead with the customary practice in this cricket world cup by electing to field first. The pitch was newly laid on the field exclusively for this world cup. The track showed the signs of some good bounce throughout the course of the match. Vaughn wanted to give his pacers a chance to go at the Bangladeshi batsmen.

Tame submission of Bangla batsmen

The pace and bounce offered by the track was always an area of concern for the batsmen. The Bangladeshi batsmen could never settle on the pitch. On top of that the line and length maintained by the English bowlers was also very tight. They did not offer any room to the Bangla batsmen to play he strokes. The openers fell cheaply, Tamim Iqbal scored 8 runs 7 balls and Shahriar Nafees scored 9 runs from 18 balls.

The rest of the batting line up just followed suit. The other batsmen in the top order Habibul Bashar made 4 runs from 18 balls and Mushfiqur Rahim scored 7 runs from 11 balls. The saving grace was the middle order batsman Saqibul Hasan who stood tall at a score of 57 runs from 95 balls and remained unbeaten till the end. His valiant effort saw Bangladesh through the 100 run mark. The tail simply refused to wag and Bangladesh was all out for 143 runs in 37.2 overs.

Dominating English bowling…

The English bowlers exploited the conditions well to restrict Bangladesh on a very low score. The top English bowlers were SI Mahmood and Monty Panesar. Both of them took 3 wickets each. The opening bowler JM Anderson took 2 wickets and the disgraced vice captain Andrew Flintoff picked up a scalp in the Bangla innings.

Shaky start

England made a heavy weather of such a miniscule target. They lost their opener with just 7 runs on the board in 4th over of the match. Ian Bell was out for a golden duck playing 10 balls in his innings. The initial jolt made the intentions of the Bangla bowlers clear that they are not going to give away the match so easily.

Middle order stabilizes…

The English middle order brought some stability to the innings with a 41 run partnership between Strauss and Vaughn. But the partnership was broken by Rasel by picking up Andrew Strauss. He scored 23 runs from 37 balls. With another 22 runs added to the scoreboard Vaughn departed at the score of 30 runs from 59 balls.

The moments of jitters for England…

In the 23rd over of the match England lost the in form Kevin Pietersen who made 10 runs from 25 balls. England were stranded at the score of 79 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 23 overs. Then Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff accumulated 31 runs to take the score to 110 runs. But at this score suddenly two wickets fell. First to go w as Andrew Flintoff scoring 23 runs from 21 balls and Rahul Bopara on a golden duck. The sword of defeat was hanging loose on the English team.

Collingwood and Nixon rescue the team…

Paul Collingwood and PA Nixon played a very patient knock to bail the English team out of the slump and guide them to victory. However they took ample amount of time to reach to the target, which is an evidence of the tight Bangla bowling. They took 13 overs to accumulate 37 runs in order to draw home a win. Collingwood was unbeaten on 23 runs from 74 balls and Nixon scored 20 runs from 39 balls. They scored 147 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 44.5 overs.

Bangladesh Pacers show a Spirited Performance

Despite having a low total to defend, the Bangladeshi bowlers were not lose hope and displayed a fighting performance against England. They kept attacking the batsmen and did not provide them with any opportunity to score runs easily. It was this disciplined performance that allowed them to give a scare to the English team and it was unfortunate that they could not convert this performance into a winner. The most successful Bangla bowler was Syed Rasel with a bowling statistics of 10-3-25-2. The other successful bowlers in the squad were Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique with 2 wickets each in their kitty.

England Limp to Victory

Despite a below par batting performance, England managed to reach its target of 143 though not convincingly. It required 44.5 overs for England to reach the paltry total of 143 after losing 6 wickets. It was Paul Collingwood and PA Nixon who saw England home safely. With this win, England has ensured that their hopes of qualifying for the semifinals are alive.

Man of the Match

The Man of the Match was Sajid Iqbal Mahmood, the paceman from England who took 3 wickets from 8.2 overs giving just 27 runs.