England vs Bangladesh, 1st ODI: Bangla impress, but not quite

Bangladesh fought a good battle without disgracing themselves, but proved to be considerably inferior to England inspite of their best efforts to go down in the first one-dayer at Trent Bridge yesterday. Knocks by Junaid Siddique and Raqibul Hasan went in vain as England chased down a decent total of 251 with relative ease with almost a full five overs to spare.

Ian Bell: back in action

Ian Bell, returning to the one-day circuit after 19 months as a replacement for Kevin Pietersen, played slowly but sensibly for an innings of 84. His partnership with Kieswetter, Collingwood and Morgan sealed the deal for England after a whirlwind innings by Captain Andrew Strauss for a change. Strauss scored 50 off 37 balls in an opening partnership of 75 with Kieswetter before he got run out by Mahmudulla just after scoring his half century. Bell took over, and England had no further trouble.

This was after a commendable performance by Bangladesh with the bat. Tamim Iqbal continued his stupendous form with the bat to score a quickfire 28 before Broad rapped him in the pads for England to claim the first wicket in the seventh over. Siddique with 51 and Raqibul Hasan with 76 steered Bangladesh’s innings and ensured there were no more characteristic batting collapses. They lost a flurry of wickets in the end, however, to limp to 250 in their 50 overs with only a wicket remaining.

It looked a good total at the time but was made light work of by a clinical England.

Midway through England’s innings, spinner Faisal Hossain bowled a delivery that lifted unexpectedly to hit Bangladesh’s wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim around the eye. He had to be taken by a stretcher after his face had swelled almost immediately – his replacement Junaid Siddique was brought on. It remains uncertain how long Mushfiqur might take to recover from the deadly blow.

England lost a couple of wickets thereafter but it was hardly anything to worry about.

Bangladesh was being captained by their regular skipper Mashrafe Mortaza who had given up his captaincy a year ago due to injury. They play the next game at Bristol on Saturday, knowing that with cameos with the bat and ball, they are capable of causing an upset.