Dawid Malan maiden World Cup century and then Reece Topley’s dangerous bowling took England to a victory over Bengal Tigers by 137 runs. It was their 4th highest victory in terms of runs in the World cup.
The English team scored 364/9 in 50 overs and in reply Bangladesh scored 227/10 in 48.2 overs.
After winning the toss, Bangladesh opted to bowl first.
A great start shown by the English batters. Dawid Malan (140 runs) showed his consistent form here and hit his maiden World Cup century. He was looking good from the beginning and showed his aggressiveness when he got settled down. He slammed 16 fours and 5 sixes in his knock. He was well supported by firstly Jonny Bairstow (52 runs) and later by Joe Root (82 runs).
Malan made 115 runs partnership with Bairstow and then 151 runs partnership with Root. Bairstow was struggling at the start and was beaten by the pacers, but after 3-4 overs he spent he started hitting everywhere in the ground. He hit 8 boundaries in his innings. Root played just opposite to his natural gameplay. Most of the time he didn’t like to play aggressive, but this time he started hitting from the start. He was unfortunate that he missed the century but again he slammed back to back half centuries. He hit 8 fours and a six in his innings.
In the end, with small contributions by Sam Curran (11 runs), Adil Rashid (11 runs) and Chris Woakes (14 runs) England scored 364 runs in 50 overs by losing 9 wickets. It was also their 3rd highest score in the World Cups.
Bangladesh bowlers after a poor start with the bowl, hold them aggressively in the end overs. At one point of time they were looking to score approx 400 runs, but credit to the bowlers who stopped them from getting there. Mahedi Hasan was the highest wicket taker by them as he took 4 wickets. Shoriful Islam who missed his hattrick got 3 wickets in the match. Taskin Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan got 1 wicket each.
Bangladesh was not looking good during the chase. They lost 4 wickets early when the team score was only 49 runs. They lost the momentum from the start. Liton Das (76 runs) and Mushfiqur Rahim (51 runs) added 72 runs together. These two somehow shifted the momentum towards their side for a little while.
Das hit 7 fours and 2 sixes while Rahim hit 4 boundaries in their respective innings. Towhid Hridoy (39 runs) also tried some hand with the bat but the target was beyond their hands. Therefore finally they posted 227 runs in 48.2 overs and lost all their wickets.
Reece Topley showed his best spell in the World Cup as he took 4 wickets and provided early breakthroughs to the team. Chris Woakes grabbed 2 wickets. Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Liam Livinstone and Mark Wood got 1 wicket each.
Dawid Malan, England, Player of the Match
“It’s nice to contribute, it’s been a long journey to try and get to this stage, so to get here is fantastic and then to put in a performance to win a game is great as well. I don’t know what it is, but I hope it will continue. Sometimes I play good shots and sometimes I play bad shots and that’s cricket. It is always about trying to cash in against some type of bowling which is yours on the day.
When you have Root at three, who is so consistent, it allows us to play a bit freely. I’m desperate to do well in this format. Desperate to win games of cricket and prove a point and prove people wrong. So when I get in, I don’t like to give it away.”