Stand-in skipper Buttler guides England home

England XI 313 for 6 (Buttler 80*, Moeen 70) beat BCB Select XI 309 for 9 (Keyes 121, Mushfiqur 51, Woakes 3-52) by four wickets Scorecard

England’s bowlers and middle-order were given a thorough test but they came out of the Fatullah practice match with a four-wicket win and their confidence boosted.

Imrul Kayes’ hundred kept them in the back-foot but they fought back in the slog overs. Later when they slipped to 170 for 5 chasing 301 runs, the stand-in ODI captain Jos Buttler and Moeen Ali pulped a challenging target as they won with 22 balls to spare. They added 139 runs for the sixth wicket in just 16.5 overs.

England started off the chase as they should have, going after the home bowlers. Jason Roy struck couple of sixes, over midwicket and mid-on, and two more fours in his 22-ball 28. James Vince was also going well but in the ninth over, Roy fell to the rookie paceman Ebadat Hossain in the deep leg-side field where Kamrul Islam Rabbi took the catch.

Vince fell two short of a fifty after he was caught behind off Ebadat in the 13th over. His 39-ball stay had eight fours and while the innings wasn’t long enough, it seems enough to suggest that England may as well go for the Roy-Vince opening partnership.

Jonny Bairstow and Ben Duckett kept the run-rate almost intact but in the 19th over, Bairstow was caught behind off Kamrul Islam Rabbi for 11. Duckett who took a bit of time to get settled under the …

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