England beat Bangladesh by eight wickets
England won the Twenty20 World Cup for the second year in a row on Wednesday, thrashing Bangladesh by eight wickets in the two countries’ first ever match in the format. England romped to a 125-run winning goal in 14.1 overs in their Super 12 battle in Abu Dhabi, thanks to opening batsman Jason Roy’s 61 off 38 balls. In his 50th outing, Roy hit his sixth T20 half-century with a straight six, and he had a crucial 73-run partnership with Dawid Malan, who made an unbeaten 28.
Left-armed Tymal Mills grabbed three wickets to help spinners Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone limit Bangladesh to 124-9.
After a six-wicket thumping of holders West Indies in their tournament opener, Eoin Morgan’s England, the world’s number one T20 squad, leads Group 1 with two massive wins.
After deciding to bat first in Abu Dhabi, Bangladesh, who were defeated by Sri Lanka in their first Super 12 match, lost regular wickets.
After giving up 10 runs in his first over, Moeen fought back to be on his way to a hat-trick in his second over, only to be prevented by Mushfiqur Rahim, who top-scored with 29 runs.
Liton Das was caught at deep square leg for nine runs by Moeen, an off-spinner, who then sent Mohammad Naim trudging back to the pavilion for five runs.
When Chris Woakes claimed Shakib Al Hasan’s vital scalp, Adil Rashid took a brilliant catch going backwards, Bangladesh found themselves in difficulty at 26-3. Shakib was knocked out for a total of four points.
Before Livingstone broke through, Mushfiqur and skipper Mahmudullah Riyad put on a 37-run combination to try to restore the damage.
After the on-field official judged it not out, Livingstone trapped Mushfiqur lbw, but England had to use the umpire referral to get the judgement in their favour.
Bangladesh continued to struggle, as Afif Hossain was run out for five runs and Mahmudullah was out for 19 runs shortly after, with Livingstone taking his second wicket.
No. 9 Nasum Ahmed hammered Rashid for two sixes and a four in the 19th over to give the Bangladesh total some respect.
Despite Jos Buttler’s wicket for 18, the England batsmen had little trouble in their batting reply.
In his attacking knock, Roy hammered five fours and three sixes, deflating the Bangladesh bowling attack.
Malan, who was playing in his maiden T20 World Cup encounter, received some valuable batting practice after missing out on the first match.
In his eighth, Jonny Bairstow struck the winning boundary.