Medium pacer Plunkett was the pick of the bowlers for England, taking four wickets in his 10 overs and conceding 59 runs.
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Morgan had assured Roy that his place in the team, under pressure from the in-form Jonny Bairstow, was guaranteed for the entire tournament. Root also appeared to incur a calf problem.
After getting one quick wicket, we were looking for the next, either Root or Hales, at any cost.
That said, it could still become a little bit of a tester if there were weather-related interruptions, which is a constant possibility with all matches played in England at this time of the year.
“Alex Hales isn’t going to score slowly”.
England suffered an early loss as Mustafizur Rahman took an exceptional catch of Jason Roy on the bowl of Mashrafe Mortaza.
“We need more variety in our attack”.
Tamim’s ninth hundred in ODI cricket was met with a large roar by a sizeable Bangladesh crowd at The Oval, and going into the final six overs of the innings, the team in green looked set for 320 and over. The other major contribution came from Mushfiqur Rahim (79, 72b, 8×4).
The change has been dramatic: they have recorded five of the six highest scores in their ODI history since the end of the World Cup, including the world record total of 444 against Pakistan, and won six of their seven most recent bilateral ODI series.
Tamim put on 166 runs for the third wicket with Mushfiqur, passing his ninth one-day global hundred from 111 balls as he paced an assault which brought Bangladesh 83 in the last 10 overs – despite the dismissal of both set batsmen to successive Plunkett deliveries.
Bangladesh, who lost their final warm-up game against India by 240-runs after being dismissed for just 84, lost the toss and were put into bat in-front of an expectant crowd at the Oval. The ball fell near him but Tamim had no idea where the delivery was and almost tripped on it, before it spun away.
Tamim Iqbal and Ben Stokes indulged in an on-field verbal exchange.
Ben Stokes and Tamim were involved in a verbal altercation as tempers frayed but the left-hander reached his century off 124 balls, including two sixes and 11 fours.
Mushfiqur holed out in the deep next ball, but Bangladesh still had the momentum to pass 300.
But Hales and Root were serene as they piled on 159 runs together, Root’s nasty stumble on the pull shot their only scare until Hales went after Sabbir Rahman and picked out replacement fielder Sunzamul Islam with a skewed sweep shot. “We will think about playing an extra bowler”. Root also got to his career best score, going past his 125 against South Africa in Centurion previous year.
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Root in particular was outstanding as he combined measured accumulation with brutal aggression in a match winning 133 not out.
