Pool A: Bangladesh Vs England Played at Adelaide Oval
Bangladesh 277/7 (Mahmudullah Riyad 103, Mushfiqur Rahim 89, Soumya Sarkar 40, JM Anderson 2/45, CJ Jordan 2/59, beat England 260 All Out (JG Buttler 65, IR Bell 63, CR Woakes 43, Rubel Hossain 4/53, Mashrafe Mortaza 2/48, Taskin Ahmed 2/59) by 15 Runs

Roaring Tigers sent English sick Lions Packing the bags back to English Zoo with spirited entertaining cricket at majestic Adelaide Oval yesterday.

Bangladesh beat England by 15 runs in a very entertaining and exciting match booking their birth for quarter finals at MCG against the reigning champion India on March 19 of 2015.

From a very tight group featuring Co-hosts Australia and New Zealand and also Sri Lanka, this success deserves unqualified accolades. Tigers made Bangladesh proud all over the world. It was a very mature team effort where many performed but the stand outs were cool consistent Mahmudullah Riyad, emerging Soumya Sarkar, ever reliable Mushfiqur Rahim, sparkling Rubel Hossain, inspiring Mashrafe and bubbling teenager Taskin Ahmed.

The beautiful Adelaide Oval heard the deafening cheering “Bangladesh, Bangladesh” as the tigers taught English Lions lessons on their own coins.

This match was the do or die for struggling England after losing to Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka convincingly early on. Bangladesh situation was not that desperate.

Bangladesh started the match with 5 points from four matches while England had only two from four. English Captain could care about Bangladesh match refusing to agree that it could bury English hopes. But Bengal tigers have really buried English hope, rubbed the English pride with Ashes like discomfort. We are sure lot of waves will strikes London media; lot of post mortems will be done.

But the history will beacon Bangladesh. Now Bangladesh has beaten England in two successive world Cups in 2011 and 2015. Next time these two teams meet in World Cup the underdog tag must go to England.

We were travelling with a high powered Bangladesh Energy Delegation led by State Minister Energy Nasrul Hamid to Meandu Open Pit Coal Mine and Tarong Mine Mouth Coal Fired Power Plants from Brisbane. Everyone was discussing about cricket. Our Bangladeshi and Australian friends from Adelaide were updating on mobile about the build up at Adelaide. The bus driver English Australian was also acknowledging our enthusiasm.

Morgan won the toss and what appeared a flat batting surface put Bangladesh to bat. His bowlers rewarded him with early wickets. Anderson struck two early blows sending back Imrul Kayes and Tamim Iqbal with two lovely swinging deliveries. But that was the only success for the English bowlers for a while as the most consistent Bangladesh batsman in the world cup Mahmudullah Riyad and emerging youngster Soumya Sarkar successfully absorbed the early shock in steadying the rocking boat out of troubled water.

We were monitoring the match constantly on mobile as we were moving in the Meandu Mines. Even our hosts were updating us from time to time. In Meandu Mine we found an admirer of Muttiah Muralitharan. We had Faisal Karim Khan, director of Summit Group with us. He was equally excited with Cricket and huge Meandu open pit mine.

Riyad and Sarkar playing very sensibly added 86 invaluable runs in the third wicket partnership. Sarkar showed great maturity in this innings. A matured head on young shoulder is always beautiful. An innings of 40 off 52 balls may sound brief but it carried immense value as it was a road block on English plans of upstaging Bangladesh. Riyad on the other end was like a rock of Gibraltar. I had regular debate about Riyad with my dear friend Maung Kyaw Sein. He is a great fan of Riyad. After watching his consistency and commitment I now have to go by my friend’s assessment of Riad’s batting as one of the mainstay of Bangladesh. Most fittingly he was honored with the first Bangladeshi centurion in World cup.

England could make inroads into Bangladesh innings removing batsman star performer Shakib Al Hasan immediately after breaking the stubborn partnership of Riyad and Sarkar. Mushfiqur joined his brother-in-law Riyad. What happened afterwards is now part of cricket history of Bangladesh.

These two “M” splayed majestically carrying Bangladesh on their shoulders. It was brilliant batting of quality strokes, grim determination and resolve. For a while Mahmudullah has been showing his class. But his other play mates Tamim, Shakib and Mushfiqur were winning all limelight. He was delivering under shadow. But this match rewarded him with a life time achievement of scoring the first world cup century.

Mushfiqur continued his blazing form with the bat. It could be fitting also if he could score century as well. The partnership, which ultimately became match winning, produced 141 invaluable runs. Mahmudullah scored 103 and Mushfiqur 89. Bangladesh went on scoring 275/7 in allotted overs.

It was not a huge score but competitive no doubt after Bangladesh was rocked at 8/2 by third over and Tamim - Shakib not contributing.

English response was careful. Moeen Ali ran himself out. But Bell was tolling. Hales brought into the side was plotting for a substantial innings with Bell till desperate captain Mashrafe bringing him back in the attack induced an outside edge of Hales bat after the pair put on 54 runs in the second wicket.

Rubel Hossain was bowling very fast on the day consistently at over 140 kmh. He struck deadly double blow when he removed Bell and Morgan in the same over. Englishmen were rocked. We were driving to Mount Kuta for dinner but kept monitoring what was happening at Adelaide oval calling Sajjad Bobby there. Taylor and Root were consumed by Taskin making it 6/163 by 36th over. At that stage Buttler was battling alone. Over after over tension was building. We were in a maxi Taxi. We had Petrobangla Chairman, Additional Secretary Energy, DG Power Cell from Bangladesh, Dr Quamrul Alam of Monash University and DR Firoz Alam of RMIT in the maxi Taxi with us driving to South Bank of Brisbane River searching for a dinner.

Rubel back in attack dealt with two more deadly blows removing Anderson and Broad. Bangladesh won by 15 runs. England hopes of moving ahead evaporated. With a match to play tiger booked a birth for MCG quarter final clash with mighty Indians.

Records that were created at Adelaide

The 141 5th wicket partnership between Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur is the highest for Bangladesh for any wicket in World Cup history. Bangladesh have three 100-plus stands in World Cup matches, all three of those during the 2015 World Cup.

Mushfiqur scored 256 runs in this World Cup, the most by any Bangladesh batsman in a single edition of the prime tournament. The previous record was 216, by Mohammad Ashraful during the 2007 World Cup.

Four ducks scored by Eoin Morgan in 2015, the second-most for any England player. Mike Brearley is the only batsmen to score more ducks in a year: five in 1979. Andy Caddick also scored exactly four ducks in 2000.
 
Bangladesh has beaten England thrice in their last four ODI meetings. They had lost each of the 12 previous ODIs before that.

Four wicketkeepers have scored a fifty and effected four or more dismissals in a World Cup match; Mushfiqur is the fourth. The three other keepers are Brad Haddin, Ridley Jacobs and Kumar Sangakkara.

Three times that England have failed to progress beyond the group stage in the last six World Cups. England is the only top-eight nation who has been knocked out so early in three of the last six editions.

Bangladesh’s graduation to Quarter Final is another evidence of what unrealistic it would be if ICC sticks to its decision of restricting future world cups to 10 teams only and more specifically to 8 elite clubs of ICC. This is the second time Bangladesh went into second round of the mega tournament after 2007.

BDST: 0938 HRS, MAR 10, 2015