Bowlers gave Bangladesh a shot in the arm in their battle for World Cup survival when they restricted England to a modest 225 in a crucial Group B match in Chittagong on Friday.
Coming from a horror show against West Indies when they were all out for their lowest ever one-day total of 58, Bangladesh needed a good start to lift their morale and the bowlers gave them exactly the same.
Shafiul Islam was a bit expensive at the start, but his partner Rubel Hossain bowled superbly from the other end, conceding only five runs in his first three overs, which put England under some kind of pressure.
Spinners reaped the reward with Razzak striking in his very first ball to dismiss Matt Prior, who was picked for opening the innings with Andrew Strauss after Kevin Pietersen had returned home.
Wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim completed an intelligent stumping to send Prior back to the dressing room after his England counterpart had made only 15 runs.
Bangladesh were over the moon when Naeem Islam had Strauss for 18 with Junaed Siddique holding a sharp catch at first slip to get rid of the England captain, who has a Bradman-like average of 98.66 against them before this game.
When Mahmudullah took the wicket of Ian Bell, another perennial nemesis of Bangladesh, caught by Naeem at mid-wicket for five, England were left struggling at 53-3.
With the run-rate dropping to under four after 20 overs, England needed someone to launch a counter-attack and Morgan did the same helping them avoid a further embarrassment.
After he was flown in from England as replacement for Pietersen, Morgan showed no signs of jet leg and added 109 runs for the wicket with Jonathan Trott to steady the innings.
Irishman Morgan, who joined Kepler Wessels, Anderson Cummins and Ed Joyce to become only the fourth cricketer to play a World Cup for two different countries, struck eight sweetly-timed boundaries to give England some momentum.
His previous World Cup with Ireland yielded him only 91 runs in nine matches, but grabbed his first chance when playing for England to hit a fifty, 63 off 72 balls, that bailed them out of a serious danger.
After Naeem ended his stubborn partnership with Trott, Bangladesh were straight back into game as England lost their last seven wickets for 63 runs.
Trott was happy to play an anchor role allowing Morgan to play his shots and was rewarded with 67 off 99 balls, his fourth half-century in five World Cup matches, before he holed out a catch to Junaed off Sakib at long-off.
Sakib also had Graeme Swann caught and bowled for 14 to finish with 2-49 while Razzak made Ravi Bopara a catch of Naeem to end his 10 overs for 2-32.
After a wicket apiece by Shafiul and Rubel Hossain, Mahmudulla brought the end to England innings, running the last man Paul Collingwood out with a direct throw from long-on.
England’s 225 is their lowest total against Bangladesh batting first in their 15 meetings, which gave the batsmen a great chance to make amends for their disastrous performance against the West Indies.
Courtesy of New Age
