Najmul Hossain Shanto brought up his maiden half-century in One-Day Internationals (ODI) as Bangladesh reached 133-4 after 31 overs in the first ODI against England at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Shanto took a single off Jofra Archer in the 31st over to reach the 50-run mark for the first time in his 16th ODI for the Tigers.
Shanto and Mahmudullah, batting on 15, are trying to rebuild the innings after Bangladesh lost Mushfiqur Rahim (17 off 34 balls) and Shakib Al Hasan (eight off 12 balls) in quick succession.
Mushfiq survived a close call in the 18th over when he got caught by Jason Roy at the mid-wicket boundary off Adil Rashid. But replays showed that Roy’s foot touched the ground before he could let go of the ball and Mushfiq was awarded six runs instead.
But in Rashid’s next over, Mushfiq again attempted a sweep shot off the leg-spinner, this time getting caught by Mark Wood.
Shakib, demoted to no.5, didn’t hang around for too long. The left-hander attempted to slog off-spinner Moeen Ali for a boundary but missed the ball completely. The ball crashed onto the stumps and Bangladesh got reduced to 106-4 in 22.4 overs.
Mahmudullah and Shanto have then added 27 runs off 44 balls for the fifth wicket so far to steady the innings. English bowlers have tightened the screws and the scoring rate has sunk below 4.50 runs per over.
Earlier, Bangladesh lost the wickets of Liton Das and captain Tamim Iqbal in the 1st powerplay for seven and 23 runs respectively.
Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first.