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ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY 2017 - REVIEWS OF MATCHES


                                           Match - 1

                                 England vs Bangladesh

                                                   OVAL, LONDON 




The ICC Champions Trophy 2017 kicked off at Oval, London with host England taking on Bangladesh. This was the first meeting between the two sides since 2015 World Cup Match at Adelaide Oval, Australia where Bangladesh had emerged victorious. So with England playing at home, it was a chance for them to set the record straight and show the world that the loss at Adelaide Oval was due to an off-day for the Englishmen.

Coming back to this match, England decided to put Bangladesh into bat after winning the toss. The primary reason behind it was generally Bangladesh likes to chase. Tamim Iqbal looked to be in cracking form with everything coming from the middle of the bat and giving him good company was Soumya Sarkar. They had stitched together a partnership of 56 runs for the first wicket until Sarkar was caught by Bairstow off the bowling of Ben Stokes for 28. 

Imrul Kayes looked decent for his 19 runs but he had to make his way back to the pavillion when he went for an expansive drive, got an inside edge and got caught at mid off by Mark Wood. Tamin Iqbal, in the meantime brought up his 37th half century. He was looking good right from the outset and capitalized on the good start to go on and bring up his 9th ODI Hundred.




He upped his scoring rate significantly after reaching the landmark and supporting well at the other end was former captain and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim. Liam Plunkett brought England back into the contest and stemmed the flow of runs for Bangladesh when he picked up the wickets of two set batsmen one after another. Tamim Iqbal went back to the pavillion after scoring a brilliant 128, studded with 12 boundaries and 3 sixes and Mushfiqur Rahim followed him for a well made 79.




After the dismissal of two set batsmen, England had taken control over the game, specially when at one stage it looked as if Bangladesh would easily cross 320. Finally they ended up scoring 305 for the loss of 6 wickets.

This is how the batting card of Bangladesh looked like at the end of the 1st innings :


Bangladesh Innings305-6 (50)
Batsman
R
B
4s
6s
SR
c Jos Buttler b Plunkett   
128
142
12
3
90.14
c (sub)Bairstow b Stokes   
28
34
4
1
82.35
c Mark Wood b Plunkett   
19
20
3
0
95.00
c A Hales b Plunkett   
79
72
8
0
109.72
c Stokes b J Ball   
10
8
2
0
125.00
c Roy b Plunkett   
24
15
3
0
160.00
not out
6
6
0
0
100.00
not out
2
3
0
0
66.67
Extras
9
 (b 1, lb 1, w 7, nb 0, p 0)
Total
305
 (6 wkts, 50 Ov)
Did not Bat
Mortaza, Mustafizur, Rubel






                                                      
  
England's opening pair of Alex Hales and Jason Roy got off to a shaky start which resulted in the loss of Jason Roy, picked up by Masrafe Mortaza in his 2nd over, with the score reading 6-1. Alex Hales got joined by England's prolific run-getter Joe Root and he looked to be in cracking form right from the word go. They were hitting the balls right off the meat of the bat and made sure that they put all the loose deliveries away for a four or a six. 

                                     
Whatever advantage Bangladesh had garnered by picking up an early wicket got withered away by the solidity this pair showed and thereby keeping England well ahead of the required run rate throughout the chase. Hales looked set to reach his 6th hundred but a rush of blood at the wrong time, when he went for a big shot for the 3rd time after hitting two consecutive sixes, brought about his downfall for 95.



After the dismissal of Hales, Eoin Morgan came to the crease and he got himself moving smoothly along with Joe Root and gradually developed a healthy partnership to ensure there are no further hiccups on way to victory. Morgan slammed his 33rd ODI fifty, his silken touches were a treat to watch and Root made sure that he did not repeat the mistake which Hales did, thereby lose out on his hundred. Root brought up his 10th ODI Hundred, and remained unbeaten at 133 to steer his team to a comfortable 8 wicket victory.



Let's have a look at the England's batting card to see how they chased down the target of 305 :


England Innings308-2 (47.2)
Batsman
R
B
4s
6s
SR
c Mustafizur b Mortaza   
1
8
0
0
12.50
c (sub)Sunzamul Islam b S Rahman   
95
86
11
2
110.47
not out
133
129
11
1
103.10
not out
75
61
8
2
122.95
Extras
4
 (b 0, lb 2, w 2, nb 0, p 0)
Total
308
 (2 wkts, 47.2 Ov)
Did not Bat
Stokes, Jos Buttler, Moeen, C Woakes, Plunkett, Mark Wood, J Ball
Fall of Wickets


                                                                                     Match - 2

                                                                       Australia vs New Zealand 

                                                                                    Edgbaston





The ICC Champions Trophy moved to Edgbaston in Birmingham for the 2nd match of the tournament where the Trans-Tasman Rivals Australia and New Zealand locked horns. New Zealand won the toss and Kane Williamson elected to bat first.
Martin Guptill and Luke Ronchi opened the batting for The Kiwis while Mitchell Starc started off the proceedings for Australia. The openers got New Zealand off to a flying start with 38 runs coming off the first 5 overs but on the very next over, after picking up two singles, Josh Hazlewood picked up the wicket of Guptill for a 22-ball 26. 




Luke Ronchi was joined by New Zealand skipper, Kane Williamson after the fall of Guptill's wicket and kept the momentum going for the side by picking up singles and making full use of the loose balls that were on offer. Just when the pair was looking to up the ante, few rain drops made umpires take the players off the field. After more than an hour's delay, players were back on the field with the revised playing conditions. The match got curtailed to a 46 overs a side game. Ronchi started from where he had left off and the break seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever. 

Ronchi reached his 50 off 36 balls, thereby getting to his highest score post the 2015 WC. His coming back to form was definitely good news for New Zealand's prospects of going further in this ICC Champions Trophy. He really cut loose after reaching his half century, slamming Pat Cummins for four and a six and tried to capitalize on the luck he had when Starc missed a straightforward chance at mid-on. His stay was cut short by Hastings when Ronchi got caught off his bowling by Maxwell at backward point. He had opened the face of the bat to crack it behind point but Maxwell, one of the best fielders in the Australian side, made no mistake and sent him back to the pavillion, with the score reading 117/2 in 16 overs.



Ross Taylor was the next man in and he along with Kane Williamson once against set the ball rolling their side, with the pair stitching up a partnership of 99 runs, before Taylor got dismissed for 46 off 58 balls and total score reading 216/3. The partnership had come off 18 overs and provided the perfect platform for the likes of Williamson who was at the crease and Corey Anderson, known for his big hitting abilities to strike really hard, thereby take the team to a big score.



Neil Broom walked in to give Williamson company and the partnership contributed 38 runs to the team's cause. During the course of that partnership, Williamson brought up his 9th ODI Hundred and he became only the 4th NZ Skipper to score a ODI Hundred against Australia. Soon after notching up the hundred, Williamson fell short of his crease and got run out for exactly 100.

James Neesham walked out to bat with the Kiwis on course to score well in excess of 300 but a flurry of wickets really put the brakes on the accelerator. They lost Neil Broom for 14, with Hazlewood picking up his wicket. Broom never looked comfortable during his short stay where he took 19 balls to score his 14 runs. Next batsman, Corey Anderson in an attempt to hit some big shots, got out after hitting a six, caught by Moises Henriques off Cummins, while the score read 268/6 from 42 overs. 

Australia tightened the noose further by not allowing New Zealand to score freely, the wrecker in chief being Josh Hazlewood. His outstanding spell of bowling saw him end up with figures of 6/52 and getting bowled out inside their allotted 46 overs for 291.





Let's have a quick look at New Zealand's batting card :


New Zealand Innings291-10 (45)
Batsman
R
B
4s
6s
SR
c Maxwell b Hazlewood   
26
22
5
0
118.18
c Maxwell b Hastings   
65
43
9
3
151.16
run out (Henriques/Pat Cummins)   
100
97
8
3
103.09
c Henriques b Hastings   
46
58
6
0
79.31
c Maxwell b Hazlewood
14
19
1
0
73.68
c Warner b Hazlewood   
6
10
0
0
60.00
c Henriques b Pat Cummins   
8
5
0
1
160.00
c Steven Smith b Hazlewood   
8
7
1
0
114.29
c Maxwell b Hazlewood   
11
7
2
0
157.14
not out
0
0
0
0
0.00
c Wade b Hazlewood   
0
2
0
0
0.00
Extras
7
 (b 0, lb 4, w 3, nb 0, p 0)
Total
291
 (10 wkts, 45 Ov)
Fall of Wickets
40-1 (Martin Guptill, 5.4), 117-2 (Luke Ronchi, 15.4), 216-3 (Ross Taylor, 33.5), 254-4 (Kane Williamson, 39.1), 257-5 (Neil Broom, 40.1), 267-6 (Corey Anderson, 41.5), 270-7 (James Neesham, 42.2), 291-8 (Adam Milne, 44.3), 291-9 (Mitchell Santner, 44.4), 291-10 (Trent Boult, 44.6)
Australia's chase was halted by another spell of showers which saw the match getting curtailed to 33 overs, with the Aussies requiring 235 runs to win the contest. So with a required run rate of above 7 runs per over, things looked heavily tilted in favour of New Zealand. Warner and Finch made a cautious start, with the weather helping Boult and Southee to get the ball to swing. In the sixth over, Boult struck for New Zealand, picking up the wicket of Warner, caught by Ronchi for 18. That was a big breakthrough for the Kiwis.


With the score reading 27/1 off 5.4 overs, Steve Smith walked out to bat. Two boundaries for Smith set the ball rolling for the Australian captain and shifted the momentum somewhat in their favour. Australia soon lost their 2nd wicket, that of Aaron Finch, when Adam Milne got him to play a rising delivery in the mid-wicket region, only to give a simple catch to Ross Taylor, who made no mistake. It was 35 on the board.



The pressure had got intense for Steve Smith to play a captain's knock and bail his team out of trouble. He was joined by Moises Henriques in the middle and soon few drops of rain started to fall but that did not deter the umpires from keeping the players on the field.

In the meantime, Henriques played some lovely shots off Boult, two cracking boundaries to get himself going and tried to gather some momentum back for his side. Just when it seemed that Smith had got an able partner in the form of Henriques to form a decent partnership, Milne struck for the 2nd time, getting Henriques caught and bowled.

With the score reading 53/3 after 9 overs, weather gods once again intervened and this time it was for a much longer duration which did not allow the game to start and thereby inspite of being in such a commanding position, New Zealand had to split points with their Trans-Tasman Rivals Australia.



This is how the Australian batting card looked like :

Australia Innings53-3 (9)
Batsman
R
B
4s
6s
SR
c Ronchi b Boult   
18
16
1
1
112.50
c Ross Taylor b Milne   
8
18
0
0
44.44
not out
8
6
2
0
133.33
c & b Milne   
18
14
4
0
128.57
Extras
1
 (b 0, lb 1, w 0, nb 0, p 0)
Total
53
 (3 wkts, 9 Ov)
Did not Bat
Head, Maxwell, Wade, Starc, Pat Cummins, Hastings, Hazlewood
Fall of Wickets
27-1 (David Warner, 5.1), 35-2 (Aaron Finch, 6.3), 53-3 (Moises Henriques, 8.6)
Bowler
O
M
R
W
NB
WD
ECO
3
0
15
0
0
0
5.00
4
0
28
1
0
0
7.00

Visit - http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-champions-trophy-2017/content/story/1100776.html for more details


2
0
9
2
0
0
4.50

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