ICC Champions Trophy 2017: England Creates History On The Very First Day

ICC Champions Trophy 2017 has been kicked off with the first clash between England and Bangladesh and man, it was a game that meant a lot more than just the results. Bangladesh, a team that went all out for just 84 runs against India in the warm match, came back with a roar and challenged the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 favorites and hosts, England with one of the biggest totals in the history of this tournament.

The Oval is one of the best strips to bat on and England, knowingly, opted to bowl first. While every tournament needs a blockbuster start, it also commands for a competitive game but the ICC Champions Trophy 2017’s first clash was nothing like that, despite being a mountain of runs scored.

Bangladesh had a steady start in the first innings and there were no hiccups shown by the openers on the first powerplay. Tamim Iqbal would have been the hero of the match with his 128 off 142 balls knock if it was not for Joe Root’s answer, which we will come back to later.

Despite being on 260/2 in the 44th over after losing the wickets of Soumya Sarkar and Imrul Kayes, and they could have added another 70 runs on the scorecard with Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim (79 off 72) being on the crease. However, the old Bangladeshi side was back in the very next over and tumbled down in the 45th over as both the set batsmen lost their wickets in succession, making Plunkett the bowling here and the over, a moment where the visitors lost the game.

By the end of 50 overs, Bangladesh had 305 runs on their scorecard and it was their highest ever total in Champions Trophy, which by all means was enough to give us a hint of what they are capable of and what kind of challenge will they pose during the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.

But then, it was England’s turn. We have learnt one thing from this game, in the era of T20 dominance, a century with a strike rate below 100 is more of a liability than an asset (referring Tamim Iqbal) and Joe Root (133 off 129) as well as Alex Hales (95 off 86) were our teachers of the day.

England’s chase got off to a poor start with the loss of Jason Roy in the 3rd over and we have already started thinking of the biggest upset on the opening day of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, but we were wrong. Joe Root and Alex Hales built on a 159 runs partnership for the second wicket and Bangladeshi bowlers had nothing to question them.

Root was unflustered by his partner’s dismissal and went for a hundred before registering his career best of 133 runs. Despite being struggling with his ankle and limping while running, he refused to give up and carried England past the line.

The skipper Eoin Morgan (75 off 61) supported him perfectly and kept pushing the scoreboard as England registered the highest ever successful run chase in the history of ICC Champions Trophy.

The Numbers from ICC Champions Trophy 2017 England vs Bangladesh Match

• No team had ever chased a total in excess of 300 in the history of the Champions Trophy. The previous best was 294 by Sri Lanka against England.
• Joe Root (84) became the fastest Englishman to score 10 ODI centuries, beating Trescothick who achieved the feat in 106 innings. He is also the third England player to do so, after Marcus Trescothick and Eoin Morgan. He is the fourth quickest overall after Quinton de Kock (55 innings), Hashim Amla (57 innings) and Virat Kohli (80 innings).
• Jake Ball conceded 80+ runs for the third time in his career, the joint most by any English bowler with James Anderson.
• Tamim Iqbal is now the fourth opener to score an ODI century at The Oval against England after Jayasuriya, Fredericks, and Gilchrist.
• In the last six ODIs, all the first innings totals have been in excess of 300. Before the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 opening game, the last four totals were 398, 365, 305 and 309.
• Tamim Iqbal became the 8th batsman to register a century on his ICC Champions Trophy debut. S Tendulkar, A Campbell, A Gunawardene, S Anwar, U Tharanga, M Kaif, and S Dhawan are the others.
• This was England’s 25th 300+ score since 2015, which is the most by any international team in a stretch of three years. The previous-best was India with 23 such totals between 2007 and 2009.
• Tamim and Rahim broke the record of the highest ODI partnership for any wicket by Bangladeshi players with their 166 runs stand.

With Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim’s dismissal in the 45th over being the turning point of the game and England giving a perfect all-rounded performance, this was definitely a nice start to the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, if not the best and Bangladesh will have to be on the winning side in the remaining games if they want to live their Champions Trophy dreams.