Bangladesh through to last four in the eight-nation ICC Champions Trophy from Group A as Australia were eliminated from the race conceding a 40-run defeat as per D/L method against England in their 3rd and last group battle at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Saturday.
Moving to semi-finals in the 8th edition Champions Trophy, Bangladesh touched a milestone of reaching the semi-finals stage in any world event. Earlier, the Tigers reached quarter-finals stage in the 2015 World Cup which was their best achievement in any world event.
Bangladesh joined the host and defending runners-up England as the 2nd semi-finalist and will play the 2nd semi-final against the Group B topper at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Thursday (June 15).
Group A champions England, also two times runners-up in this ICC event, will lock horns in the 1st semi-final against the Group B runners-up team at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Wednesday (June 14).
On their way to semi-final berth, Bangladesh collected three points from three games while England collected six points winning all three encounters.
In the day’s match, replying to Australia’s 277/9 in 50 overs, England scored 240 for 4 in 40.2 overs before the rain halted the game. The English side was declared winner as they crossed the target of 201-run in 40.2 overs as per D/L method.
England collected their figure riding on the 4th pair stand of 159 in 26.1 overs between centurion Ben Stokes and skipper Eoin Morgan.
Man of the match Ben Stokes stayed for an unbeaten century of 102 off 109 balls featuring 13 boundaries and two over boundaries, while Morgan played an innings of 87 off 81 balls, including eight boundaries and five over boundaries. Jos Buttler was unbeaten with 29 runs while Joe Root added 15 runs for the side.
Josh Hazlewood bagged two wickets for 50 runs in 9 overs while Mitchell Starc took one for 52 runs in 10 overs.
Sent in to bat first, Australia scored 277 for 9 in 50 overs spurred with three half centuries by Travis Head (unbeaten 71 off 64b; 5×4; 2×6), Aaron Finch (68 off 64b; 8×4) and skipper Steven Smith (56 off 77b; 5×4).
Delivering 10 overs each, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid captured four wickets apiece for 33 and 41 runs respectively.
Bangladesh eliminated New Zealand winning by 5 wickets in their last group encounter where man of the match Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah Riyad shared the Tigers record-highest ODI partnership of 224 in 34.5 overs in any stand which is also the highest in this tournament till the date.
Shakib-Mahmudullah shared the 5th stand to create the partnership score history along with their centuries. Shakib hammered 114 runs for his 7th ODI ton in the game while Mahmudullah, who hit back to back century in the last World Cup against England and New Zealand, stayed for his 3rd century with unbeaten 102 runs.
Tigers’ previous highest ODI partnership was of 178-run in 21.4 overs that came in the 3rd pair between Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim in a match against Pakistan in Dhaka in April 2015. Tamim and Mushfiqur hammered a century each in the match scoring 132 and 106 runs respectively.
Bangladesh started their campaign with an 8-wicket defeat against England in the tournament opener and shared match points with Australia in the rain-hit 2nd game.
Tamim Iqbal, who hit his 9th ODI ton scoring 128 runs against England, missed the opportunity for another one falling short of five runs against Australia.
Meanwhile, no teams of Group B could confirm their semi-finals berth as all four teams — South Africa, Sri Lanka, defending champions India and Pakistan — have identical two points after playing two games each to record one win apiece.
Roll of Honour of the ICC CT: South Africa (1998), New Zealand (2000), India- Sri Lanka (Joint champions in 2002), West Indies (2004), Australia (2006 and 2009) and India (2013).
Points Table of GROUP A
Teams Match Win Loss N/R Points
England 3 3 0 0 6
Bangladesh 3 1 1 1 3
Australia 3 0 1 2 2
New Zealand 3 0 2 1 1
— Dhaka,UNB
