England tame brave Bangla tigers

London : Bangladeshi shirts lent a deep shade of green to the stands at the Oval, the venue of the first game of the Champions Trophy.
Colourfully dressed women in green saris, big red dots on their foreheads, danced in Bangladeshi style to — amazingly enough — jazz music in the lane outside the stadium.
Inside, Tamim Iqbal, playing his first Champions Trophy match, made sweet music, too. He hit an aggressive hundred that had the Bangladeshi fans go hoarse with their happy cries; the English supporters, quite appreciative of his knock, rose to their feet to honour him twice, when he got to his 100 and then when he fell for 128 (142 balls).
Bangladesh got to 305/6 in 50 overs, a very creditable performance. The pitch was flat, the sun was out, the conditions excellent for batting. Bangladesh’s score was good, but would it challenge England? The expert opinion at the break was that they were 20 runs short. But, considering England’s very robust, aggressive batting that keeps coming at you right up to No. 9 Liam Plunkett, it would be more realistic to say that Bangladesh were actually 60 runs short. To beat this England XI, on a flat track, a score in the region of 350 is something you need. Unless you pack top-class bowlers in your XI, as South Africa or Australia do.
Hale storm
After Jason Roy, going through a lean patch, fell for 1, Alex Hales took charge. Hales is a powerful striker of the ball, and he got off to a rollicking start by striking Shakib Al Hasan for a four by clearing the fielders at the cover region. He continued to strike fours square of the wicket, on both off and leg side, as the Bangladesh bowlers failed to bowl with the discipline needed to pin him down.
At the other end, Joe Root, timing the ball perfectly, got away too, and Bangladesh’s hopes of defending a large total began to recede quickly.
Hales didn’t get a 100, unlike Iqbal, falling for 95 off 86 balls, but his partnership of 159 with Root, off just 25.3 overs, put England on the road to victory. Root did get his 100, his unbeaten 133 including 11 fours, including two of the last two balls of the innings. Root’s highest ODI score, and 75 off 61 by captain Eoin Morgan, made it the highest successful chase in Champions Trophy’s history. We’re probably going to see a lot of the same in the coming days from England.