ROOT TON GUIDES ENGLAND TO HIGHLIGHTS ENGLAND BANGLADESH
ICC Champions Trophy
Joe Root hit a sparkling unbeaten century to steer England to an emphatic eight wicket victory over Bangladesh in the ICC Champions Trophy opening match played at The Oval yesterday. Root’s unbeaten 133, Alex Hales’ 95 and Eoin Morgan’s undefeated 75 shaded Tamim Iqbal’s 128 and Mushfiqur Rahim’s 79, helping the hosts gun down Bangladesh’s 305 for six in 47.2 overs with eight wickets and 16 deliveries to spare
Root hoisted one six and struck 11 boundaries and also put on 143 runs for the unfinished third wicket along with Skipper Morgan.
Earlier, Tamim Iqbal struck a fluent century to lead Bangladesh to a decent total of 305 for six from their allotted 50 overs.
Tamim made 128 and shared a third-wicket partnership of 166 with Mushfiqur Rahim which laid the platform to give Bangladesh the chance to spring a major shock against the hosts.
England lost all-rounder Chris Woakes to a side injury after he had bowled two overs and they looked lethargic in the field at the start of their bid to win a global 50-over tournament for the first time.
The pockets of flag-waving Bangladesh fans in the ground cheered every run wildly, although their team made a cautious start.
Tamim and Soumya Sarkar added 56 for the first wicket before the latter was caught on the cover point boundary by substitute fielder Jonny Bairstow off Ben Stokes for 28.
Imrul Kayes, on 19, was brilliantly caught by a diving Mark Wood at mid on but that brought Mushfiqur to the crease and he and Tamim gradually accelerated the scoring rate with crisp strokes all around the ground.
Stokes and Tamim were involved in a verbal altercation as tempers frayed in the sunshine but the left-hander reached his century off 124 balls, including two sixes and 11 fours.
Tamim skied Liam Plunkett to wicket-keeper Jos Buttler and Mushfiqur was caught in the deep for 79 off the next ball.
Australia and New Zealand are the other teams in Group ‘A’ with the top two advancing to the semi-finals.