Bangladesh's players finally gave their country reason to cheer yesterday when they clinched a two-wicket win over England that keeps alive hopes of the co-hosts reaching the World Cup quarter-finals.
After the spinners restricted England to 225 all out, Bangladesh survived a minor collapse from 155-3 to 169-8 to bounce back in style from last week’s humiliating nine-wicket loss to the West Indies.
Mahmuduallah Riad and Shafiul Islam put on an unbeaten 58 for the ninth wicket to steer their team to 227 and just a second ever win in 15 one-day internationals against England.
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More
• Cricketers in the glare of their fans
• Points table
• Shakib Al Hasan confident Bangladesh will stand strong
• West Indies reach quarter-finals with win over Ireland
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Only a week after angry fans hurled stones at captain Shakib Al Hasan’s house and the opposition team bus in protest against the defeat to West Indies, Bangladesh can now overtake England in the Group B standings if they beat the Netherlands at the same venue on Monday.
That would likely leave England needing to beat the West Indies in Chennai next week to advance from Group B. “I always have belief in my team,” Shakib said.
“They worked really hard, day in, day out, over last few days. It simply paid off. It proved that we can make a comeback from any situation. “But frankly it took me for a while to believe that we have won the game.”
After two wins, two defeats and a tie, the only consistent thing about England’s World Cup campaign is the batting of Jonathan Trott, who scored his fourth half century from five tournament innings after Bangladesh had won the toss.
Almost half the 17,451 fans at Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium had left, seemingly resigned to defeat, when James Anderson conceded five wides off the first ball of the 45th over to leave Bangladesh needing to score at just a run a ball. Anderson gave away two more wides and a leg bye off the same over, which went for 11 runs.
With the pressure off, Shafiul hit Bresnan for two boundaries off the 47th over.
Mahmuduallah finished on 21 and Shafiul on 24 to take Bangladesh over the line for their first win over England in Bangladesh. The country’s only previous win over England was a five-run victory in Bristol last year. “We thought we were in a great position to win it,” the England captain Andrew Strauss said. “You expect to win games from that circumstance. But that is one-day cricket.”
Tamim Iqbal’s 38 from 26 balls got the home side’s reply off to a quickfire start before Imrul Kayes top-scored with 60 in a crucial 82-run stand for the fourth wicket with Shakib (32).
Tamim’s wicket was one of three to fall for just 21 runs as Bangladesh slipped to 73-3 but Kayes and Shakib steadied the innings. Bangladesh was cruising but Kayes was run out going for an unnecessary second run, the first of five wickets to fall for just 14 runs. Half centuries by Eoin Morgan and Trott had steered England out of early trouble at 53-3.
But in a tournament where England’s bowling was poor for three matches before dispatching South Africa last time out, now it seems the batting also needs work. “Losing three wickets early with the bat certainly didn’t help us,” Strauss said.
“It was a pretty slow, low, stodgy wicket. And we needed wickets in hand to get up to 240 or 250, which would have been a very good score.”
Having arrived in Bangladesh just three days ago as an injury replacement for Kevin Pietersen, Morgan hit 63 to show why England wanted him in its original 15-man squad before he was ruled out with a broken finger.
SCORECARD
England:
A Strauss c Siddique b Naeem 18
M Prior st Rahim b Razzak 15
J Trott c Siddique b Shakib 67
I Bell c Naeem b Mahmudullah 5
E Morgan c Kayes b Naeem 63
R Bopara c Naeem b Razzak 16
G Swann c and b Shakib 12
P Collingwood run out 14
T Bresnan c Shafiul b Rubel 2
Ajmal Shahzad b Shafiul 1
J Anderson not out 2
Extras: (lb2, w8) 10
Total (all out, 49.4 overs) 225
Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Prior), 2-39 (Strauss), 3-53 (Bell), 4-162 (Morgan), 5-182 (Trott), 6-195 (Bopara), 7-209 (Swann), 8-215 (Bresnan), 9-217 (Shahzad), 10-225 (Collingwood)
Bowling: Shafiul 8-0-43-1 (w3), Rubel 8.4-0-40-1 (w2), Naeem 8-0-29-2, Razzak 10-2-32-2 (w3), Mahmudullah 5-0-30-1, Shakib 10-0-49-2
Bangladesh:
Tamim Iqbal b Bresnan 38
Imrul Kayes run out 60
Junaid Siddique run out 12
Raqibul Hasan b Shahzad 0
Shakib Al Hasan b Swann 32
Mushfiqur Rahim c Prior b Shahzad 6
Mohammad Mahmudullah not out 21
Naeem Islam b Shahzad 0
Abdur Razzak c Bresnan b Swann 1
Shafiul Islam not out 24
Extras: (b1, lb9, w23) 33
Total (for eight wickets, 49 overs) 227
Did not bat: Rubel Hossain
Fall of wickets: 1-52 (Tamim), 2-70 (Siddique), 3-73 (Raqibul), 4-155 (Kayes), 5-162 (Shakib), 6-166 (Rahim), 7-166 (Naeem), 8-169 (Razzak).
Bowling: Anderson 9-0-54-0 (w7), Shahzad 10-0-43-3 (w9), Bresnan 10-1-35-1 (w1), Swann 10-1-42-2 (w2), Bopara 3-0-19-0 (w4), Collingwood 7-0-24-0
Result: Bangladesh won by two wickets
