ENG vs BAN: England defeated Bangladesh by 137 runs, Malan and Topley became the heroes of victory.

 

In the seventh match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, England defeated Bangladesh by 137 runs and achieved their first win in the tournament. England had set a lofty target of 365 runs for Bangladesh to win, in response to which the Bangladeshi team was never seen chasing the target and ultimately the entire team was all out after scoring 227 runs.

In this match, England included fast bowler Reece Topley in the playing eleven in place of Moeen Ali and Topley proved his captain's decision right by taking 4 wickets in the match. Before Topley, England's batsmen created a ruckus. For England, David Malan scored a brilliant century (140) while Joe Root (82) and Jonny Bairstow (52) also played half-centuries. Mehdi Hasan was the most successful bowler for Bangladesh, taking 4 wickets for 71 runs in 8 overs. Shoriful Islam also took 3 wickets in his name. Taskin and Shakib also got one wicket each.

After this, when the Bangladeshi team came out to chase this big target, they lost the first 4 wickets for just 49 runs and it was confirmed that Bangladesh would not be able to win this match. Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das tried to save Bangladesh from the initial blow given by Reece Topley but even their half-century innings proved to be insufficient for Bangladesh.

Liton Das scored 76 runs while Rahim played an inning of 51 runs. For England, Topley took 4 wickets and Chris Woakes took 2 wickets. Many positives were seen in this match for England. On one hand, Malan and Joe Root continued their excellent form, while on the other hand, opener Jonny Bairstow also showed signs of returning to form by scoring a half-century. The kind of play that England has shown in this match must have raised concerns for the other teams.