ICC Cricket World Cup 2015
Bangladesh’s first WC quarterfinal in history
Mashrafe Mortaza’s second wicket fanned strong belief among Bangladesh fans of a dejavu of 2011 win over England at World Cup 2015 at Adelaide today.
Bringing himself back in the batting powerplay overs, Mashrafe dismissed Joe Root.
Starting off on the backfoot in defence of the scoreboard total of 275, Bangladesh pulled the game back with the double strike of Rubel Hossain after Mashrafe’s first wicket.
The opening breakthrough was offered with the run out of Moeen Ali.
Earlier, Mahmudullah Riyad’s maiden ton and the first of a Bangladeshi in the ICC cricket World Cup heaved Tigers to post a reasonable total of 275.
Mushfiqur Rahim’s 89 was the next most significant contribution for Bangladesh after the Tigers were on a slide losing double wickets in two phases earlier in play.
In a must-win match for the Englishmen to keep alive the quarterfinal dream, England started on a flyer after winning the toss and putting Bangladesh to bat first.
James Anderson dismissed openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes with swing before Riyad and Soumya Sarkar, 40, put a record 86-run 3rd wicket stand for Tigers in World Cup.
In another spell of double wicket fall, Soumya and Shakib Al Hasan, 2, departed in quick succession sending Bangladesh on a slide. Chris Jordan and Moeen Ali claimed the wickets.
Mahmudullah, 103, made the anchoring 141-run stand with Mushfiq to guide Bangladesh to a challenging total against England.
James Anderson and Chris Jordan ended with two wickets each with Moeen Ali and Stuart Broad claiming one each for themselves.
Bangladesh requires only a win from their match against England today and hosts New Zealand later on in the tournament to secure a place in the last eight.
Bangladesh Team
Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Sabbir Rahman, Mashrafe Mortaza (C), Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed
England team
MM Ali, IR Bell, AD Hales, JE Root, EJG Morgan (Capt), JWA Taylor, JC Buttler (wk), CR Woakes, CJ Jordan, SCJ Broad, JM Anderson
-With The Daily Star input
