Amid the inquest and recriminations that will rightly follow England’s desperate World Cup campaign, it is worth noting that Bangladesh were good value for a victory that was greeted by their players with a lap of honour to mark qualification for the quarter-finals.
The hundred by Mahmudullah, perky support from Mushfiqur Rahim, enterprising captaincy of Mashrafe Mortaza and a clinical closing over by the slippery Rubel Hossain offered four good reasons why they deserved to win. Once again, England failed to piece together a complete display.
Despite a seventh-wicket partnership of 75 in 61 balls between Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes, the challenge of making good the loss of three wickets for 11 runs in 22 balls was simply too much, especially after a controversial run-out decision against Chris Jordan with 38 needed from 25 balls.
It looked in the early stages as though England would win in comfort. James Anderson removed both opening batsmen in his first two overs, apparently vindicating the decision of Eoin Morgan to bowl first, no matter that only three of the previous 15 games in the tournament in Australia had been won by the chasing side.
Morning drizzle had freshened the pitch and Morgan felt that the drop-in surface would not deteriorate to overencourage spin. As it happened, Bangladesh caused more difficulties with pace as the ball fizzed through under lights in the second innings.
Advertisement
Soumya Sarkar and Mahmudullah added 86 for the third wicket before Mahmudullah, who was at the crease when Bangladesh beat England in an equally tense World Cup game in Chittagong in 2011, posted 141 in 143 balls with Rahim, nicknamed the “Mighty Atom” when he became the youngest player to appear in a Lord’s Test aged 16 a decade ago.
Both played well square of the wicket as England changed approach when the little swing that there had been started to diminish. Morgan used his bowlers in short bursts and the death bowling, including a particularly good over by Jordan, was as good as England have produced through the competition. Eight runs in wides, however, proved expensive.
The target of 276 should have been within range. Mahmudullah, the first Bangladesh player to score a World Cup hundred, thought that it was 20 runs short. Ian Bell and Moeen Ali began confidently, but the run-out of Ali to a dreadful mix-up showed that England would need to overcome nerves as well as the bowling to secure the points they needed.
Alex Hales established some rhythm on his recall, but Bell began to stall after a fluent opening and tried to steer a ball that was too close to his body, having invested 82 balls in his 63. Worse followed three balls later, when Morgan shovelled Hossain to deep square leg, and James Taylor fell to a rash stroke that resulted in a catch to slip.
The situation called for Buttler to produce something special. He drove powerfully almost from the start and a flip over his shoulder against Taskin Ahmed was a rare deviation from the orthodox. Woakes, meanwhile, offered mature support.
Advertisement
Disappointment at the loss of Buttler turned to anger next ball when Simon Fry, the third umpire, deemed that Jordan was run out, having made ground with a dive, because his bat was no longer in contact with the ground when the stumps were hit. There was certainly no benefit of considerable doubt.
Woakes survived a drop by Tamim Iqbal with 20 runs needed, but Hossain closed the game with full, straight balls that were too good for Stuart Broad and Anderson.