01 March 2023

England recover from ragged start to skittle Bangladesh for 209 in first ODI

01 March 2023

England recovered from a ragged start to skittle Bangladesh for 209 after 47.2 overs in the first of three ODIs.

On a typically hazy afternoon in Dhaka, where the temperature exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, Bangladesh, who have won 12 of their last 13 ODI series at home, raced to 51 for one after nine overs.

But Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid took two wickets apiece to peg back their opponents barely 24 hours after a separate England side had lost a thrilling Test in New Zealand.

Chris Woakes and Will Jacks, on his ODI debut, claimed a wicket apiece with Bangladesh grateful for Najmul Hossain Shanto’s maiden half-century in this format, eventually out for 58 off 82 balls after the hosts had elected to bat first.

While England would ordinarily be expected to knock off a target of 210 with ease, the surface in Mirpur is turning appreciably and Bangladesh have three quality spinners to call upon in the chase.

Woakes put down a sharp return catch to reprieve Tamim Iqbal (23 off 32 balls) in the opening over and the Bangladesh captain went on to capitalise on some wayward bowling early on with a rash of fours.

But from the ball after being pulled into the stands by Litton Das, Woakes had his revenge when the opener was beaten on the outside edge and struck flush on the back pad, with a review unable to save him.

Wood struck in his opening over for his first wicket in ODIs in two years as his express pace unsettled Tamim, whose attempt to fend off a 92mph brute met a sticky end after the ball struck his elbow and splayed his stumps.

Najmul kept the score ticking along but lost the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan to injudicious strokes. Rashid tossed up a leg-break and Mushfiqur could not resist a sweep but was done in the air and caught in the deep while Shakib missed a wild swipe at Moeen and lost his leg stump.

Najmul belied his average of 14 in 15 ODIs before this match to reach a 67-ball fifty but perished shortly afterwards in the manner he perhaps should have done earlier in the match after clattering a Rashid long hop to Jason Roy, who dived to his right at short midwicket to take an excellent catch.

When Najmul was on 34, he appeared to have fallen to the same England combination but was reprieved by the television umpire, who adjudged the ball to have bounced before Roy’s catch which overturned the soft signal of ‘out’.

Mahmudullah was strangled down the leg side by Wood for 31 off 48 balls, Jacks had his first ODI wicket when Afif Hossain was caught by Rashid and Mehidy Hasan Miraz perished after nicking off to Archer.

There was some brief resistance from Taskin Ahmed and Taijul Islam to get Bangladesh beyond 200 but their innings ended before their 50-over allotment was completed.

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