Malan century sees England off and running at the World Cup
Bangladesh v England, 10th October 2023.
England 364–9
Bangladesh 227 all out
England win by 137 runs
After only 90 minutes sleep between watching my Los Angeles Dodgers lose once more to the Arizona Diamondbacks on the rocky road to a World Series they are clearly destined not to reach and the beginning of England’s highly expected thumping of Bangladesh, the walls were beginning to bend, I’d clearly drunk too much late night and early morning tea, and England’s Reece Topley was on the rampage with early wickets and narrowly missing out on a World Cup hat-trick on his way to 4 Bangladesh wickets for the cost of just 43 runs. With the heavy cricketing underdogs already 26–3 chasing England’s unreachable target of 365 runs to win, I collected my son for an amble in some unexpected warm October sunshine on the banks of the River Severn in the historic toy-town of Ironbridge, and after feeding some hungry swans and ducks we treated ourselves to some sweets from the town’s “Old Fashioned Sweet Shop” before some piping hot fish and chips beside the “Grand Old Lady” and the world’s oldest iron bridge.
England were destined to win easily, so why worry?
Since we were last together, the Los Angeles Dodgers have thrown their almost unbeatable seasonal record out of the play-offs window yet again and with England experiencing a 72 hour spell of unseasonably warm October weather, I treated myself to another morning and early afternoon in Ironbridge but rather than my beautiful son for company I came armed with a tripod and a video camera as I took up residence on a rickety old fishing peg on the banks of the River Severn to record four videos for my Youtube channel that one day, one fine day, will melt the internet and probably the very fabric of the space/time continuum too. The “Grand Old Lady” sure provides the most perfect of backdrops and with a still river barely moving, the most incredible of reflections too. Yesterday I was larking around in front of a video camera, trying to make myself smile as well as hawking around a self-published book on football that I couldn’t be more proud of if you paid me. Today was the feeding of swans and ducks with a kid in a Dr Who t-shirt.
Bliss.
Since we were last together the world has taken another sharp right turn into the macabre with the horrifying sights emerging from Palestine and Israel. As ever we’re expected and demanded to pick a side from our Overlords who control both teams in this unspeakable murderous mayhem of which only they benefit. Fear. The spectacle of fear. The “theatre” of war. The one sided propaganda for the one sided war against all of us. The much missed American comedian Bill Hicks had it right when he questioned whether we, the indoctrinated, propagandised, disaster capitalism loving “West” were in fact the “Evil Empire” and we are, and we’re seemingly on the brink of World War III for the 78th year in succession.
So with the walls bending and taking shape all around me I went for a stroll along the banks of the River Severn. Ironbridge, much like the grand old game of cricket, does wonders for the soul.
Talking of cricket, since we were last together another plucky underdog in the shape of Netherlands have been beaten, but not trounced and embarrassed, by both Pakistan and New Zealand, with the Kiwis holding a 100% record after two games and their demolition act inflicted upon England five days ago. Bangladesh defeated Afghanistan in the battle of the minnows before on the same October Saturday South Africa and Sri Lanka combined for an astonishing, record breaking 754 total runs, with Rassie van der Dussen and Quinton de Kock South African centurions both, alongside World Cup record breaker Aiden Markram with his faintly ridiculous 106 from just 54 balls received.
Australia, already written off by your favourite cricket correspondent and clearly a man who doesn’t learn by his past cricketing mistakes, reduced tournament favourites India to 2–3 in their chase of just 200 runs for victory before crowd darling Virat Kohli and KL Rahul dug their team out of a huge hole to an impressive, and seemingly imposing 6 wicket victory, but this game was far from the one-sided Indian triumph inked in the forever scorecards of this World Cup.
So to today, and following a steady opening century partnership between “Man of the Match” Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow, England romped their way to an opening World Cup win without any major scares. Yorkshiremen Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root are “in the runs” to use a cricketing phrase of yore, with Root racking up an impressive 159 total runs across the 2 games so far and of course Dawid Malan proving his worth once more at the top of the batting order with 140 from just 107 balls received today, and the “anchor” of an innings that rather fell away following his dismissal as England collapsed to a symmetrical 66–6 in the final 10 overs of their innings to close on 364–9 and some distance from the expected 400+ with Malan at the crease unbeaten, and the score standing at 266–1. England scored just 98 runs for the fall of their last 8 wickets in 13 overs, but it mattered not.
Shoriful Islam impressed me once again with the ball for Bangladesh, as he did during their winter tour to New Zealand of 2021/2022. He ripped the heart out of the England middle order batting, scalping the wickets of Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone on his way to an unsuccessful attempt at a World Cup hat-trick and Liton Das anchored his team’s run chase with an impressive 76 runs from 66 balls received. Wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim and Towhid Hridoy combined mid-innings with 90 total runs between them, however 365 runs to win was always an impossible dream, but Bangladesh will win again in this tournament in the coming weeks.
For England, it’s Afghanistan on Sunday before a humdinger of a game in prospect with South Africa the following Saturday.
This cricket World Cup is officially off and running.
Thanks for reading. I plan on following every England game at this World Cup and hence my match report on their heavy defeat by New Zealand is linked below, together with links to 2 incredible books on cricket that you’re never going to read!