A match-winning century from Joe Root helped England get off to the perfect start as they beat Bangladesh by eight wickets in the opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 at The Oval.
After being put into bat, Bangladesh got off to a decent start and opener Tamim Iqbal scored 128 and put on 166 for the third wicket with wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim. But things started to fall apart quickly after Tamim’s dismissal as Mushfiqur followed him back to the pavilion off the next ball and Bangladesh could only muster 305/6 from their 50 overs, despite being 261/2.
In response, Jason Roy, who had the backing of his captain Eoin Morgan, failed to repay the faith as he got out early. But then Alex Hales and Joe Root 159 runs for the second wicket before the opener was dismissed five runs short of a well-deserved century.
Root, made no mistake, however as he brought up his 10th ODI century and put on an unbeaten 143-run partnership with captain Eoin Morgan (75*) for the third wicket to help England cruise home with 16 balls to spare.
Here are some interesting statistical highlights from the game:
0 – No team had ever chased a total in excess of 300 in the history of the Champions Trophy. The previous best was 294 by Sri Lanka against England.
1 – Joe Root is the quickest Englishman to the milestone of 10 ODI centuries beating Trescothick’s record of 106 innings. He is also only the third Englishman to get to that mark, after Marcus Trescothick and Eoin Morgan.
2 – Two English bowlers jointly hold the record for conceding 80+ runs most times in ODIs. Jake Ball and James Anderson have both done it thrice.
3 – Only three players have got to the mark of 10 ODI centuries quicker than Joe Root, who took 84 innings. Quinton de Kock took just 55 innings, Hashim Amla took 57 and Virat Kohli took 80 innings.
4 – Tamim Iqbal became the fourth opener to score an ODI century against England at The Oval after Fredericks, Gilchrist and Jayasuriya.
6 – The last six ODI totals at The Oval have all been in excess of 300. Before this game, the last four scores were 398, 365, 305 and 309.
8 – Tamim Iqbal became the eighth batsman to score a century in his maiden Champions Trophy innings. A Campbell, S Tendulkar, A Gunawardene, S Anwar, M Kaif, U Tharanga and S Dhawan were the others.
25 – England now 25 300+ scores since 2015, which is the most for a team in a three-year stretch. The previous-best was India who had 23 such scores between 2007 and 2009.
141 – The previous highest ODI partnership for any wicket by a Bangladesh pair against England was the 141 between Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim at Adelaide in 2015 before Tamim and Rahim broke that record.
166 – The 166-run partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim is the highest by a Bangladesh pair at the Champions Trophy, beating the previous record of 85 by Shahriar Nafees and Aftab Ahmed against WI in 2006. It is also the highest third-wicket partnership in the history of the Champions Trophy.
