Root to the rescue
Flawless, unbeaten 133 gets England out of jail after scare
Starts can hardly be more misleading. England won the toss and after eight balls of the Champions Trophy, Chris Woakes – the ever-reliable Woakes – had bowled a maiden over, Mark Wood was looking too sharp for Bangladesh’s batsmen, and England’s opening game looked to be a stroll.
England eventually won comfortably enough, with eight wickets and 16 balls to spare, but at immense cost. They lost Woakes, arguably their most indispensable cricketer after Ben Stokes, with a side strain that will surely keep him out for the rest of this tournament. Nobody else in the land can swing the new white ball at Woakes’s speed in addition to batting with such sound mind and technique.
Less seriously, Joe Root hurt his right ankle and calf when playing a hook and his back foot slipped, before soldiering on to his 10th oneday international hundred and highest innings. Stokes lost his temper with Tamim Iqbal – who scored 128 off 142 balls for Bangladesh – but, fortunately, not the use of his left knee as he managed seven overs of medium pace in two spells.
Woakes completely crocked, and Stokes partially crocked so he is unable to bowl flat out, while Jason Roy cannot work out a low-risk way to score his next run: if all these casualties should be found to stem originally from their involvement in this year’s edition of the Indian
Premier League, they will outweigh the gains for English cricket.
Even Liam Plunkett was not quite himself: three of his four wickets came in a flurry at the end. Hence, after the strange omission of Adil Rashid, the highest wicket-taker in ODIS since the last World Cup, England were powerless to prevent the third-wicket partnership of 166 by Tamim and Mushfiqur Rahim. So, Bangladesh, by reaching 300, went a long way to exploiting England’s troubles, but not far enough to make it a close contest once Root embarked on his partnerships with Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan.
It was weight of stroke that Bangladesh lacked when England were wobbling – after Moeen Ali dropped a sitter at square leg, when Jake Ball was overawed by the occasion, when Stokes and Plunkett bowled below full pace, when even Root was flustered enough to bowl two wides in an over, and only Wood was fulfilling his role under the strain – not least by taking a catch at full stretch to his left, which did wonders for reviving England’s morale and banishing forebodings.
Tamim showed his world class when scoring 28 off his last 18 balls, but was too careful about bringing up his personal hundred off 124 balls. Mushfiqur enjoyed the short balls served up by Ball but could not manage the hits down the ground like Tamim – or Hales, Morgan and Root, who hit over mid-on his first ODI six since January.
Ball had recommended himself on Monday when bowling his 10 overs against South Africa but it was a mistake to select him ahead of Rashid. Like most Asian batsmen, Bangladesh’s might prefer spin, but Rashid had taken 10 wickets in England’s three-game series last October, and had certainly not conceded as many as 80 runs in any ODI.
Roy decided not to hit his way out of trouble with the forthright drives that are his forte but to scoop over short fine leg – as high a risk as he could have taken. In a cut-throat competition – and this was almost a knockout game – it is disturbing when players do not stick to the basics until they have found their feet.
Once Hales had settled in with Root, Bangladesh never had the fast bowling to take wickets, nor the spin bowling, as they had omitted their off-spinner who had bamboozled England last autumn in the Tests, Mehedi Hasan, in order to pack their batting – having slumped earlier this week to 22 for six against India on this ground.
Morgan had referred on the eve of this match to England’s “strong opening partnership”, which is true but not the whole truth. A year has passed since Roy and Hales put on 50 for the first wicket in an ODI, but when one misses the other often hits. Hales at his best almost tears an attack limb from limb; and at his worst he gives his wicket away, with a century for the taking, as he had done in a Test.
As it was not a slow pitch, Root did not feel obliged to resort to unorthodox shots, he simply timed and placed superlatively. Even so, England still needed 75 off their last 10 overs, whereupon Morgan accelerated and, in a stand of 143 with Root, the captain propelled his team over the banana skin and the line.