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The team is in seventh heaven, the country over the moon. Most in the near-capacity Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium crowd thought it impossible for Bangladesh to beat England. Nilankur Das reports. Scorecard | Read blog
The team is in seventh heaven, the country over the moon. Most in the near-capacity Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium crowd thought it impossible for Bangladesh to beat England.
The fans went silent when Imrul Kayes was run out going for an impossible second. Bangladesh had another 71 runs to get with six wickets in hand and the collapse began. From 155 for three the scorecard read 169 for eight. The crowd began to leave once skipper Shakib Al Hasan was out trying to sweep Graeme Swann.
Two hefty blows from Shafiul Islam coming in at No 10 revived the chase. With a run-a-ball 24 the medium-pacer rose to Bangladesh's cause with the bat scripting a two-wicket win. He and Mahmudullah stitched a partnership of 58 runs to keep alive Bangladesh's chances of making it to the next round.
England seems to have made a habit of stretching every match to the end. Skipper Andrew Strauss had said something about bringing in consistency to the performance as a cure to his hair-loss in the World Cup so far. With this loss, that seems unlikely.
The discipline Kayes showed in his 100-ball 60 was not emulated by his teammates. Naeem Islam got ball that straightened similar to the one that got Raqibul Hasan earlier in the innings. Ajmal Shahzad, replacing the injured Stuart Broad, got both the scalps. Once again a flying start by Tamim Iqbal was almost going to waste.
Earlier, Ireland born Eoin Morgan and South Africa-born Jonathan Trott revived England's innings. At 53 for three England needed someone to take the pressure off and Morgan did just that.
