England make a clean sweep of ODI series by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Chittagong
Scorecard:	Bangladesh v England
Player:	TT Bresnan, C Kieswetter
Event:	England in Bangladesh 2009/10

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DateLine: 5th March 2010

 

The English team led by Cook swept the ODI series 3-0 as Bangladeshi side were left licking their wounds. The visitors were powered to a challenging 284 for the loss of five wickets in their 50 overs. Kieswetter led the way as he scored a well-paced maiden ODI century. The Bangladeshi side in reply could not keep up with the creeping run-rate and when finally their quota of fifty overs drew to a close the hosts had managed just 239 for the loss of nine wickets

 

Shakib surprised everybody as he elected to bat first on a track that would significantly slow down as the day progressed. Cook and Kieswetter exchanged their roles as the former went after the bowling while the latter was content in just rotating the strike. Cook could not send most of the deliveries across the boundary ropes his intent shone like bright daylight. The pair put on 59 in 12.4 overs before Cook (32, 43b, 3x4) was caught behind of a Shakib al Hasan delivery which was safely pouched by Rahim behind the stumps.

 

None of the batsmen were able to find any sort of fluency as Pietersen (22, 36b, 1x6, 1x4) and Collingwood (36, 53b, 1x4) struggled to get the ball off the square. the Bangladeshi spinners led by skipper Shakib al Hasan (1-45) and Abdur Razzaq (2-40) literally squeezed out the life of the English innings until the arrival of Eoin Morgan. The pair Kieswetter and Morgan plundered 67 runs in 8.1 overs making optimum use of the batting powerplay which yielded 55 runs in 5 overs. Kieswetter soon reached his maiden ODI century in 117 balls before being cleaned up by a quicker delivery from Razzaq.

 

Morgan (36, 29b, 1x6, 4x4) fell towards the end of the innings as he tried to create some scoring opportunity while Luke Wright (32 not out, 13b, 2x6, 2x4) used the long handle to ensure that the English score reached 284 for the loss of five wickets in 50 overs.

 

Bangladesh in reply would have pinned all their hopes on in-form Tamim Iqbal to provide a rollicking start but it was not to be. In the third ball of the Bangladeshi innings the hosts suffered a major jolt Tamim Iqbal (0, 3b) edged a perfect out-swinger from Shahzad to Bresnan at second slip. Kayes (17, 30b, 3x4) and Aftab Ahmed (46, 60, 7x4) kept the Bangladeshi hopes flickering with some adventurous strokeplay before the former fell to another out-swinger from Bresnan .

 

Aftab Ahmed was a victim of poor running and once he departed Mushfiqur Rahim (40, 43b, 2x4) and Shakib Al Hasan (38, 38b, 3x4) did their best to inject some momentum into the innings but the English bowlers were too good for the hosts. For England Bresnan ended with four wickets thus registering his career best figures.