Let the heavy defeat not deflate Tigers

When England tick all the boxes, it is nigh impossible for any team in the world to stop them from winning a game.

The defending world champions did exactly that against Bangladesh in Dharamshala yesterday. And, the outcome was a massive 137-run win — a victory that put England back on track after a stunning nine-wicket defeat against New Zealand in their World Cup opener last week.

The match as a contest was all but over at the halfway mark after England had clobbered 364-9.

Bangladesh were expecting an England assault after skipper Shakib Al Hassan won the toss and elected to field. The six-wicket win in the opening game against Afghanistan on this ground, where the spinners found good purchase from the wicket, and the overnight rain might have prompted Shakib to chase again.

Shakib was also expecting early breakthroughs from the pacers. But it did not happen as the two England openers — Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan — put on 115 runs in 17.4 overs, an ideal platform from where the holders prospered.

Besides, Malan’s imperious 140 off 107 balls also came as a surprise to the Tigers, who were expecting the assault from somewhere else considering the left-hander’s holding role in the team. Joe Root, the other player entrusted with the job of anchoring the innings and allowing the others to go all guns blazing, also hit a fine 82 off 68 balls.

When Malan was dismissed at 293-3 in the 40th over, England, with a batting line-up as deep as number 10, were eyeing a total close to 400.

However, the Tigers pegged them back, conceding just 66 runs in the last 10 overs, with left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam and off-spinner Mahedi Hasan, who came into the side as the sixth bowler, sharing seven of the eight wickets that fell at that time.

That bowling effort in the final Powerplay overs gave the Tigers some sort of momentum going into a very difficult chase.

But an all-too-familiar top-order collapse dashed any hopes for Bangladesh of making a match out of it. The Tigers lost the first three wickets for 26 runs inside six overs, a position from where they never recovered and were eventually bundled out for 227.

Left-arm pacer Reece Topley started the carnage by having young opener Tanzid Hasan and one-down Najmul Hossain off successive deliveries in the second over before having Shakib with a beautiful delivery that just moved enough to rattle the top of the off-stump.

Bangladesh were reduced to 4-49 when ‘impact player’ Mehedi Hasain Miraz edged an attempted drive off Chris Woakes to England captain Jos Buttler behind the wicket.

It was good to see opener Liton Das scoring some runs. The elegant right-handed batter struck a fluent 76 off 66 balls and looked well set to cross the three-figure mark before misreading a slower delivery from Woakes and offering a tame catch behind the wicket.

Experienced campaigner Mushfiqur Rahim, who steadied the rocking boat by putting on 71 runs for the fifth wicket with Liton, also hit a half-century. But after his departure at 164-6, the remaining batters were left with the task of reducing the margin of defeat.

The defeat was disappointing for the Tigers after a good start against Afghanistan. But it was always on the cards and there is no shame in losing against a top time like England.

However, going into their next game against New Zealand on October 13 in Chennai, the Tigers need to do something to address the opening headache if they are to be competitive against the big teams in the showpiece event. Otherwise, they will end up as an also-ran like they did in the past.