- Monday, June 05, 2023
By: Sarwar Alam
Opening batsman Jason Roy on Wednesday credited the England bowlers for helping set up a second successive victory at the Twenty20 World Cup with an eight-wicket drubbing of Bangladesh.
Roy smashed 61 off 38 balls as England romped to their victory target of 125 in 14.1 overs in the Super 12 clash in Abu Dhabi.
He reached his seventh T20 half-century with a straight six in his 50th match during a partnership of 73 with Dawid Malan, who made an unbeaten 28.
“We bowled extremely well. Take nothing away from the bowlers,” Roy told reporters after his man of the match performance.
“We took our catches and fielded and bowled really well. We got off to a great start with the bats and then just capitalised on a lower total.”
England left-arm quick Tymal Mills took three wickets and combined with spinners Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone to restrict Bangladesh to 124-9 in the two nations’ first ever meeting in the format.
Eoin Morgan’s England, the world’s number one-ranked T20 team, top Group 1 with two big wins after a six-wicket thrashing of holders West Indies in their tournament opener.
Roy said England’s loss to Bangladesh in the 2015 50-over World Cup knocked them out of that tournament but helped build a strong bond between the players and change their brand of cricket.
“Our camp has been together since 2015 like,” he said. “We’ve created bonds outside of cricket and on the field, which I think plays a huge part in travelling the world and playing good cricket.”
“We understand our roles in the team as individuals and as teammates.”
Bangladesh, who lost their opening Super 12 match to Sri Lanka, lost regular wickets after electing to bat first.
– Spin attack –
After giving away 10 runs in the opening over, Moeen hit back and was on a hat-trick in his second over, only to be denied by Mushfiqur Rahim, who top-scored with 29.
Moeen, an off-spinner, had Liton Das caught at deep square leg for nine and then sent Mohammad Naim trudging back to the pavilion for five.
Bangladesh found themselves in trouble at 26-3 when Chris Woakes claimed Shakib Al Hasan’s key scalp with Adil Rashid taking a good catch running backwards. Shakib fell for four.
Mushfiqur and skipper Mahmudullah Riyad, who made 19, tried to repair the damage in a 37-run partnership before Livingstone broke through.
Livingstone trapped Mushfiqur lbw, but England had to use the umpire referral after the onfield official ruled it not out.
Bangladesh kept faltering as a run-out cost Afif Hossain his wicket for five and Mahmudullah departed, for 19, soon after as Livingstone’s second wicket.
“Definitely, we were disappointed with the batting, it was a good wicket but we didn’t start well and didn’t have any partnerships in the middle either,” said Mahmudullah.
“We are more skilled hitters than power hitters, we don’t want to change that because we believe we can post good totals. We need to reassess and come up with a good plan.”
Bangladesh’s batting effort was well below par and the England batsmen having little trouble in their batting reply despite losing Jos Buttler for 18.
Roy smashed five fours and three sixes in an attacking knock that took the steam out of the Bangladesh bowling.
Malan, who did not bat in the first match, got useful batting time
Both team stook the knee before the start of the game with much focus on the anti-racism gesture after South Africa’s Quinton de Kock pulled out of a match against West Indies on Tuesday because he refused to obey the national cricket board’s orders.
Roy said, “Our team is extremely diverse with people from all over the world. It’s only right that we support that and we support what they are going through.”
