SPORTS REPORTER

Bangladesh will play England in the second ODI today knowing that only victory will do if they are to avoid losing their first series at home since 2016. The Tigers have won seven consecutive ODI series at home since then, but the last time they lost at home was against England in a series that finished 2-1 in the visitors’ favour.

Given that backdrop, the onus will be on the batters to come up with something special after a lacklustre batting display in the first ODI on Wednesday.

Bangladesh managed to post just 209 runs despite a decently constructed innings. The openers had started brightly in good batting conditions and Bangladesh had in fact batted on a better wicket before the dew factor later on in the evening rendered things difficult for the likes of Taskin Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan and others in defence of a small total.

Najmul Hossain Shanto top-scored with 58 but although he had started his innings fluently, he looked slightly uncomfortable after reaching his fifty, not quite finding the timing in his shots. He ultimately threw his wicket after an unnecessary stroke. More importantly, there was no one else who could wrestle the initiative and set England a more challenging task.

Yet, the bowlers did incredibly, which is where Bangladesh will find hope in order to beat the current world champions in the second ODI.

Taskin Ahmed bowled with a lot of pride during an enormous effort in the first ODI but whether he will be fully fit for the second game remains another matter. Mushfiqur Rahim has an injury issue as well.

The strategy to employ three spinners worked well for the Tigers given that all three of Taijul Islam, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehedi Hasan Miraz got some extra bounce compared to England’s spinners, but Bangladesh’s main concern was the performance of Mustafizur Rahman.

The left-armer conceded 42 runs without bagging a wicket. He beat the bat against right-handed batters on a few occasion but was not able to get the ball to swing into the left-handers, especially Dawid Malan, who single handedly carried England. When Fizz tried those in-dippers, it almost inevitably drifted towards the pads.

“The batters may not have been able to carry on but in the past our batters won us games with big knocks. I am hoping that whoever makes runs, gets a big score,” Shanto said

The Tigers will be hoping that the batters can put in a collective effort as they aim to stage a comeback in the second ODI.