Bangladesh Win unbelievably in the very crucial match against England. Shofiul Islam, who only had 16 runs best in his overall career has done the main damage to English bowlers. A lot of supporters left the ground when Bangladesh lost 8th wicket. They were 56 runs far from the win. He played his best ever innings against England. But Shofiul Islam and Mahmudullah had different idea. Shofiul 16 runs from Swan’s over. “I could not believe that they would win the match for us”. Shakib said about the match winning pair. Bangladesh win by 2 wickets.
Shafiul Islam raised Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign from the dead, as he turned yet another astonishing contest on its head with a breathtaking assault in the batting Powerplay to leave England stunned by their fifth cliffhanger in consecutive contests, and facing their own make-or-break encounter with West Indies in Chennai next week.
In another unbearably tense finale, Bangladesh’s ninth-wicket pair of Shafiul and Mahmudullah transformed a futile situation with glorious blaze of strokeplay, as they turned an asking rate of 57 in 62 balls into a glorious victory with an over to spare. The honour of the winning hit went to Mahmudullah, who belted a Tim Bresnan full-toss through the covers for four, to queue pandemonium among the most passionate cricket supporters in the world.
On a sluggish track in which runs had, for the most part, to be grafted, England batted first and were bowled out for 225 – a total that was no better than par, and which owed everything to a chalk-and-cheese stand of 109 between Jonathan Trott and the fit-again Eoin Morgan. In reply, however, and in tricky dew-laden conditions that made the ball tricky to grip – particularly for their cantankerous spinner, Graeme Swann – Bangladesh were on cruise control at 155 for 3 in the 31st over, before a calamitous run-out gifted their opponents a way back into the game.
The man who had the game in the palm of his hand was Imrul Kayes, the less-vaunted of Bangladesh’s opening batsman, who slipstreamed Tamim Iqbal during a captivating 38 from 26 balls that put Bangladesh firmly ahead of the run-rate, before settling down to play the holding role with a chanceless 100-ball 60.
Chanceless, that is, except for his sketchy running between the wickets. For it was his ill-advised decision to take a second run to deep square leg that ended a fourth-wicket stand of 72 with Shakib Al Hasan that looked to have broken the back of England’s resistance. In the next five overs, as Bresnan and Paul Collingwood applied the emergency brake, Bangladesh were limited to seven singles before Shakib – gasping to lift the tempo after a doughty 58-ball innings – aimed a loose sweep at Swann and was bowled for 32.
Mushfiqur Rahim had been virtually strokeless since the run-out, with two runs from 18 deliveries before the re-introduction of Ajmal Shahzad persuaded him to drive expansively through the covers. But one ball later he edged a beauty on off stump through to Matt Prior, and before another run had been added, he produced another superb delivery to take out Naeem Islam’s off stump for a duck.
It was a near-replica of the delivery that had earlier sent Raqibul Hasan on his way in the same manner, and with eventual figures of 3 for 43, Shahzad was England’s most successful bowler of the day. In between whiles, however, his line had been all over the shop – a performance that too many of his team-mates had been willing to emulate, not least James Anderson, who had borne the brunt of Tamim’s early onslaught, and later served up a dreadful nine-ball first over of the batting Powerplay – including five wides first-ball – to give Bangladesh real belief in the closing stages.
That belief had been ignited by the swinging blade of Shafiul, who turned a bad day for Swann into a dreadful one by leathering his final over for 16, including the only six of the day, over wide long-on. Up until that point, Swann had been more preoccupied with the wet and slippery ball, with Andrew Strauss forced to intervene during a heated row with umpire Daryl Harper, but those blows brought the requirement down to 39 from 48 balls, and brought an abrupt halt to the flow of disgruntled fans who were trooping out of the stadium.
Full report to follow
25 overs Bangladesh 123 for 3 (Kayes 44*, Shakib 15*) need another 103 runs to beat England 225 (Trott 67, Morgan 63, Naeem 2-29)
Tamim Iqbal launched Bangladesh’s bid for World Cup survival with a brutal onslaught of 38 from 26 balls, before England hit back with three timely wickets to give themselves hope of defending a meagre total of 225 at Chittagong. By the halfway mark of the run-chase, however, Bangladesh were still very much in control of the contest at 123 for 3, with Graeme Swann’s inability to grip the ball in dewy conditions undermining England’s hopes of tightening the pressure in the middle overs.
After a stuttering finish to their effort with the bat, England carried on misfiring with their initial efforts with the new ball, as the dangerman Tamim was gifted a succession of leg-stump deliveries to kick-start the run-chase and get a partisan crowd right behind his team’s efforts. Four of his five boundaries came from the errant James Anderson, and at 52 for 0 in the ninth over, Bangladesh were cruising into the ascendancy.
However, Tim Bresnan has stepped up to become the leader of England’s attack in recent weeks, and in his second over he found an aggressive full length with a hint of late movement, and a flat-footed Tamim inside-edged onto his own stumps to stun the crowd back into silence. Four overs later, Anderson atoned for his wayward bowling with a pinpoint shy from backward square to run out Junaid Siddique at the non-striker’s end.
Though England had considered playing three spinners in the lead-up to the match, they were very happy to have stuck to what they know when Swann’s problems with the slippery white ball started to take hold. Andrew Strauss turned to Ravi Bopara for some fill-in overs of medium pace, while Stuart Broad’s replacement, Ajmal Shahzad, produced a mixed bag of deliveries – a regular stream of leg-side wides was offset by the ball of the day to Raqibul Hasan, a perfect legcutter that straightened from a good length to hit the top of off.
With Imrul Kayes dropping anchor to excellent effect, Bangladesh’s captain Shakib Al Hasan emerged to provide critical support in a fourth-wicket stand of 50. Shakib made a half-century in Bangladesh’s last World Cup fixture against England in 2007, and at the end of a torrid off-the-field week, he found that the middle of the pitch was the safest place to be.
A sumptuous drive off Anderson confirmed his eye was in, although England regained a small measure of control when the umpires agreed to a ball-change after 21 overs, and Swann was instantly in the thick of things with a tidy fourth over that went for two runs. However, the more notable aspect of the over was Swann’s petulance when called for a leg-side wide that might have brushed Shakib’s pad. Aside from the extra run, it was a sign that England were getting very seriously rattled.
