England crush B'desh to a pulp

Dharamsala: Defending champions England flexed their muscles to crush Bangladesh by 137 runs and record their first win in the World Cup with Dawid Malan smashing a 107-ball 140, here on Tuesday.

After posting a formidable 364 for nine, Reece Topley (4/43) ran through Bangladesh's top order as they could muster only 227 in 48.1 overs, with Litton Das (76) and Mushfiqur Rahim (51) standing out in a largely disappointing batting show.

England's batting stars Malan, Jonny Bairstow (52) and Joe Root (82) contributing significantly in the first half of the contest to take their team to a mammoth total.

It was a game of contrasting halves, where England's mighty batting power served a reminder to its rivals in the first half, while in the second, Bangladesh wilted after taking some early blows and could muster a mere 67 runs in the last 18.1 overs, losing five wickets.

Bangladesh could never recover after Topley struck thrice at the start of their chase, which derailed the Asian side and forced them into a damage-control mode.

For the remainder of the innings, Bangladesh's approach was conservative, lacking any signs of a fight-back or taking the attack to the opposition even as the run-rate surged.

Tanzid Hasan (1) played an ordinary shot to be caught at slip off Topley, while Najmul Hossain Shanto did no better when he played one away from the body to be caught at point for a first-ball duck.

Topley then bamboozled Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan (1) as he got one past his defence to hit the off-stump and reduce the rivals to 26 for three inside the first six overs. (PTI)