England, the host, marked the first game of Champions Trophy with a hefty win. Bangladesh’s inning was strong at Kennington Oval scoring 306 batting first. However, its batsmen, at the lower order did the mistake of assuming the score as enough. The last five overs in the inning could have been better than it was. Moreover, the formation seemed more focused on batsmen. The way England ruined their defense in the chase made lack of bowlers and bowling abilities quite apparent in Bangladesh squad.

The 300 plus score was bolstered with the strike of 128 off Tamim Iqbal. The third wicket partnership of 166 was a strong stance. It went on until the 45th over. The inning had two partnerships. By the 20th over the top batsmen hauled the score to near hundred. Musfiqur added 79 off 72 balls. The players subsided the early woes of the inning. Earlier, Soumya Sarkar and Imrul Kayes returned to pavilion without any contribution. Tamim trickled down boundaries off Moeen Ali and off those bouncers from Mark Wood. After the players were contained in consecutive deliveries in 45th over, Liam Plunkett slogged the team in the final overs.

England’s only setback and Bangladesh’s only success in the chase was Jason Roy’s wicket in the third over. After this, all that remained for Bangladesh were the massive and unbeaten partnerships of 143 and 159 runs. Joe Root played with injured ankle and calf for his career best 133 off 129 balls, hammering 11 fours and a six. Partnering with Eoin Morgan, the skipper, he forged the unbeaten stretch of 143.

Still, the second wicket stand with Alex Hales was stronger. Hales scored five runs less to a century. Both scored 159 runs together batting for about 25 overs. Bangladesh’s strategy of playing without more specialist bowlers backfired here. What they had was just not enough to defend. Morgan scored 75 off 61 balls remaining unbeaten, bringing on the 8-wicket victory with 16 balls to spare.