England survived a nervous wobble with the bat to beat Bangladesh by four wickets in Guwahati and top the table at the World Cup.
Bangladesh reduced England to 103 for six chasing 179, but a vigilant 79-run partnership between Heather Knight and Charlie Dean steadied the ship, helped by the absence of Bangladesh’s key bowler Marufa Akter for the final 15 overs of the chase.
Nevertheless, the performance will raise questions about the extent to which England have overcome the problems that dogged them under their previous coach, Jon Lewis, particularly their ability to concentrate in moments of pressure. Bangladesh is a country that came through the World Cup qualifiers in April, has not played international cricket since and whose domestic structure is still almost entirely amateur; their arrival at the drop of a hat to take on the giant of world number 2 was never in the script.
England were very fortunate to be on the right side of two controversial TV referee decisions, leaving Knight with nothing and 13 lives. The rules surrounding the use of the decision review system state that in the absence of definitive evidence to the contrary, the initial decision on the field should stand. Here, however, the third umpire opted to overturn an on-field ‘out’ decision against Knight, ruling that the batsman had not put Marufa behind the stumps, despite UltraEdge appearing inconclusive.
Then Bangladesh celebrated Shorna Akter’s diving catch at cover in the 15th over and Knight walked to the pavilion, but the on-field umpires were unsure and the third umpire, after a lengthy review, ruled that the photographs were inconclusive as to whether Akter had grounded the ball to break her fall.
In between, Knight used DRS to overturn a leg-before decision from Marufa, somehow surviving the scrappiest of starts (at one point she was 14 off 44 balls) to bring up the half-century that allowed England to stagger over the finish line.
“I definitely had a little bit of luck today, but the year I’ve had that, I’ve earned it,” Knight said. “I just tried to ride that and make it count.
“It’s my first innings in an ODI since January, so it always took a while to find my feet. The hardest thing to come back from injury sometimes is rhythm. It can take a while to get back, so I’m glad I was able to spend some time and get through that pressure.”
The match has put a significant dent in England’s net run rate, which was healthy after last week’s astonishing 10-wicket win against South Africa; they are only above Australia thanks to the reigning champions’ defeat to Sri Lanka this weekend.
This should have been an easy chase for England after a leisurely batting performance from Bangladesh, who scored just 178 despite hitting all but two balls of their 50 overs. The pace of the innings was typified by Sobhana Mostary, who – seven years after her one-day international debut – celebrated a maiden half-century but needed 92 balls to reach the milestone.
Amy Jones and Tammy Beaumont both fell victim to Marufa’s hooping inswing, before leg-spinner Fahima Khatun reduced England from 69 for two to 78 for five, removing Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley and Emma Lamb. Left-arm spinner Sanjida Akter Meghla then bowled one to Alice Capsey, patting her on the back pad and sending her packing.
After her own early dismissal for a duck, with Dean taking a soft catch at short extra cover, Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana had been seen encouraging her players from the dugout to pick up the pace. “I wanted them to play until the last ball,” she said.
But Bangladesh’s innings only came alive at the very end – 48 runs came from the last seven overs, thanks to a thrilling, unbeaten 43 from 27 balls from No. 9 Rabeya Khan. In the end, it wasn’t enough to make the gigantic murder possible.
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