England has defeated Bangladesh in the opening game of 2017 ICC Champions Trophy thanks to a wonderful century by Joe Root who made 133 of just 129 balls for England who chased down a 306 runs total inside 48 overs. Bangladesh’s Tamim Iqbal also scored a magnificent hundred but was no avail.
England had won the toss and elected to bowl first at a very good looking pitch and the decision paid off as England won the game by 8 wickets with 16 balls to spare. Bangladesh posted a healthy total of 306 with the help of Tamim Iqbal’s 128 but England never looked in troubled and pretty much cruised through the total with Joe Root 133, Alex Hales 95 and Eoin Morgan scoring 75.
England are set to open their 2017 ICC Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh in the Group A match on Thursday, 01 June 2017. Its a massive game for both sides considering other two matches against against 2015 world cup finalists Australia and New Zealand. A win for either team will put them in great position going into the remaining two fixtures needing just 1 win out of 2 to qualify for semifinals.
England playing at home will be favourites but Bangladesh do have the ability to pull off a surprise result in every major competition. The match will be played at The Oval cricket stadium in London and will start at around 10:30 uk time.
Short Match Preview: Bangladesh played two warm-up matches against Pakistan and India and lost both but those results will count little when the proper competition begins. The major factor of warm-up matches was to get use to English conditions and pitches and Bangladesh will be hoping to avoid their innings collapse against India which saw them bowled out under 100. They are a team with good bowling unit and if they can win the toss and bat first, it will give them a good shot at making it a competitive game.
England on the other hand won the three match ODI series against South Africa winning the first two matches comfortably while losing the last one by 7 wickets. England will fancy their chances against Bangladesh and if they can win this game they are in a good position to qualify for the semifinals as they would need just 1 win out of the 2 remaining matches against Australia and New Zealand.
England beat South Africa 2-1 in 3-match ODI series and going into the ICC Champions Trophy as one of the favourites to reach final. The open their Group A campaign against Bangladesh on Thursday, 01 June 2017.
Match Predictions: England are a solid ODI team and should be odds on favourites to get the result done against fragile batting unit that of Bangladesh. However England’s recent performances have been unpredictable and Bangladesh will hope to catch them on their bad day to have a chance in this game. I am going with a comfortable win for England to set off the tournament.
The game will be broadcasted live on StarSports (INDIA), SkySports 2 (UK) and the coverage begins around half hour before the start of play at around 10:00 uk time. If you missed the live action, you can always tune in here for full match highlights.