One-Day action
Bangladesh 277-6 lost to England 278-6 by 4 wickets
Reports from all three games as England beat Bangladesh
IN the end, the aggro lifted but the compelling, competitive cricket remained as England sealed a hardfought, straight-talking series win over Bangladesh with a four-wicket victory in Chittagong.
Given the conditions (both in the air and of the pitch), the quality of the opposition, the tour’s carry-on and the notable absentees, England’s assistant coach Paul Farbrace rated this a “hugely satisfying” series win.
“There’s been a lot around this tour,” he said. “Whether we should come or not, whether individual players would come. You get here and you see the guns and SWAT team. That’s quite a lot for young blokes to take on board. The ones who have come will go away with a series win in a spicy series, but for a lot of young blokes it’s been a good learning experience, too.”
Two of those, Sam Billings and Ben Duckett, anchored an impressive chase of 278, the highest in Chittagong by more than 50 runs, and England’s highest in Bangladesh. Vicecaptain Ben Stokes, revelling in his responsibility, came together with Chris Woakes to share 42 and see the tourists home with 13 balls to spare.
Billings replaced the injured Jason Roy, but would have come in for James Vince had Roy’s right quadricep recovered in time. His absence left England without their entire first-choice top order, but the performances of Billings (62) and Duckett (63) not only secured the win but fired a warning shot to the returning ODI regulars for January’s tour of India and beyond.
“For Ben Duckett to come in in a high-pressure situation to carry on the way he did in the first game was a real credit to him,” said Stokes, who was Man of the Series.
Both players used their lack of orthodoxy to their advantage, with Billings slog-sweeping Mashrafe Mortaza’s seam for six, and Duckett unafraid to ramp and reverse-sweep both pace and spin.The pair of them, along with Jake Ball, who took seven wickets in his first two ODIs, rank among a positive tour’s real reasons for optimism.
On that competition for places, Farbrace said: “Take Duckett. He’s come in, and settled so well – better than any of us could have expected. Not many of us knew that much about him as a bloke or a player. His calmness around the game has shown he has the temperament.
“Billings is another one – he enjoys the limelight. The competition we are seeing now, every player knows they need to play well to be successful.We had three high-quality wicketkeepers playing yesterday, and four high-quality batsmen to come back in for the next game.
“Bowling wise we have options as well.The competition is fantastic.”
For a 12-over spell at the end of Bangladesh’s innings, England’s bowlers appeared to have let the game slip, as Mushfiqur Rahim and Mosaddek Hossain pilfered 85, and the parsimonious work of Adil Rashid (4-43) and Moeen Ali (1-42) was undone. But even with the absentees, England’s batting had ample depth, and Woakes smote Shafiul Islam – who had bowled a sensational spell to dismiss Duckett and Jonny Bairstow – down the ground for a series-sealing six.
Captain Jos Buttler, with Billings the team’s most nervous watcher, composed himself to explain the importance of the win, which ended a Bangladesh run of six straight series wins.
“It should not be underestimated what we have achieved here,” he said. “Physically it’s been a tough tour, and mentally as well, with everything that’s gone on before, and then to come here – a pretty young and inexperienced team – to win in Bangladesh, who have had success in their recent series, I thought we played really well, but with room for improvement as well.
“It’s great to learn when you’re winning, and good teams win games when they are not at their best. Moving forward, this tour will stand us in great stead.”
Both Buttler and Stokes admitted the brouhaha that overshadowed the 34-run defeat in the second game – with Bangladesh captain Mortaza and Sabbhir Rahman fined for a send-off when Buttler was dismissed on review – made clinching the series even more satisfying.
“It does a bit [feel we’ve had the last laugh],” said Buttler.“It’s definitely nice to win, especially after what happened. It does feel pretty sweet to win the series. It was nice to shake their hands at the end, look a few in the eye and say,‘well played’”.