Key events
9th over: England 68-0 (Buttler 32, Salt 31) Shakib frustrates Buttler by bowling a quick and tidy line. Buttler’s shoulder shimmy gets more pronounced the more he starts to tick and sure enough he marmalises the final ball for six high and long over mid-on!
8th over: England 60-0 (Buttler 25, Salt 30) More singles for England who have just been pegged back by the home side.
There are a few fallow weeks coming up, internationally at least, but a reminder that CRICKET NEVER STOPS.
100 days to go 🗓
Record demand for tickets 📈
Early Bird prices end tomorrow 🚨— England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 8, 2023
7th over: England 55-0 (Buttler 22, Salt 28) Shakib comes on for a twirl hoping to atone immediately for that spillage. He’s darting it flat at the stumps and England can only nudge four singles.
6th over: England 51-0 (Buttler 20, Salt 26) Buttler is DROPPED by Shakib and it is an absolute goober! High and swirling off a mis-timed drive and the great all-rounder never looked comfortable under it, the ball plopping off his palms and hitting the turf. They scamper a single off it and Phil Salt smashes the next ball for four. Cruel game.
A reminder you can watch this series FOR FREE on the ECB website:
It’s T20 time! 💥
Register for free 📝
Sign in to watch now! ⌨
🇧🇩 #BANvENG! 🏴— England Cricket (@englandcricket) March 9, 2023
5th over: England 44-0 (Buttler 19, Salt 20) Don’t bowl there Mr Fizz! Full and wide and clattered square by Salt. Buttler loses his shape as he tries to overhit a couple of deliveries but he gets the last one just right, smoking over mid-on for SIX! England’s first maximum of the game.
4th over: England 31-0 (Buttler 12, Salt 14) Taskin is punched off the back foot powerfully by Buttler and the ball traces away along the carpet for four. The bowler is working up a decent pace here, whanging one down at 88mph that Buttler gropes at. England pick off the singles.
Doug needs some love:
“Hi James. Why are we playing 7 bowlers? There are only 20 overs to bowl. Sometimes I think I don’t understand cricket any more and I’m only 33. Doug”
We are the same age Doug which is a pointless thing to say but is true and will make you feel loads better undoubtedly. I’m 33 and don’t understand anything.
3rd over: England 23-0 (Buttler 6, Salt 12) Mustafizur ‘The Fizz’ Rahman on for the third over, he over pitches and is slapped back down the ground by Salt. A tidy-ish over though.
I like this James Quigley:
“Hi Jim, my entry for: There ought to be a word for the sensations of satisfaction lying in following England’s cricket in the sub-continent while the snow is building outside. Any ideas”:
Hoverbyovernating
2nd over: England 18-0 (Buttler 6, Salt 8) Taskin comes on with his skiddy pacers. Phil Salt climbs into him straight away, a textbook cover drive to the fence. There’s a strangled shout for a leg-side looking lbw but there’s nowt doing. England have started perkily.
1st over: England 9-0 (Buttler 5, Salt 2) Salt is nearly bowled by an arm ball that slides just past the stumps but runs away for a coupe of leg-byes. England look busy and rotate the strike before Buttler bunts for four off the final ball.
Hello to John Starbuck!
“Hi Jim. There ought to be a word for the sensations of satisfaction lying in following England’s cricket in the sub-continent while the snow is building outside. Any ideas?”
Over to you OBO hivemind. I’ll get me thinking cap on.
In the Sky Studio Steve Finn and Nasser Hussain are doing a nice bit comparing Rehan Ahmed to Adil Rashid. I was going to post some nuggets but my two year old daughter bundles into the room and she’s painted herself blue. Two things: 1) She’s incredibly pleased with herself and 2) I’m not on duty.
The players are coming out onto the field. Buttler and Salt are up top for England. Nasun Ahmed has the ball in hand. Play!
Why thanks for asking Kevin. I had a huge bowl of rigatoni and fell asleep on the sofa in front of ‘Severance’.
Just returned home from dinner at a friends place. On the way home, we saw 2 leopards, elephant, buffalo and had to do 2 u-turns as we couldn’t get past a pride of lion & a dam was flooded.
How was your evening?
— Kevin Pietersen🦏 (@KP24) March 8, 2023
Pre-match reading:
*This message contains an apology for the personal nature of this plug*
Some of the finest players the game has seen were forged by their immediate childhood environment; cricket is embellished by these home-spun techniques and idiosyncrasies.
Jasprit Bumrah honed his lethal bull-whip yorker as a child by repeatedly bowling at the skirting board in the corridor of his apartment block in Ahmedabad. If the ball hit the skirting on the full it would make only one muffled thud, all the better for not waking his mother from her afternoon nap.
Lasith Malinga’s side-armed, slingshot action is a direct response to learning cricket on the beaches of Sri Lanka’s south-west coast. Bowling with a shaved and burnt tennis ball, Malinga soon worked out that the most effective delivery in beach cricket was a yorker that took the sand out of the equation and zeroed in on the driftwood stumps and his opponents’ bare feet.
Please do regale me with tales of your own backyard cricket games. Yes, you can be out first ball!
Here are the teams in full:
Bangladesh: Rony Talukdar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Towhid Hridoy, Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Nasum Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Ben Duckett, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood
Bangladesh win the toss and will bowl
A load of old toss… Joss Buttler loses seven on the bounce and ‘Our man in Chattogram’ – Simon Burnton – pings me a quick email to say it is 1 out of 15 called correctly by England’s skipper.
England’s seventh white-ball of the year. Jos Buttler has lost all seven tosses. Bangladesh bowling first.
England leave out Rehan Ahmed and Reece Topley. pic.twitter.com/4rnklpoVca
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp) March 9, 2023
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the final furlong, the last dance, the spluttering encore of England’s (men’s) white ball winter schedule. I make this T20 series against Bangladesh their ninth series in seven months, dating back to last October’s historic return to Pakistan.
They’ve taken in five countries on their six tours, Christopher Columbus’ would likely wince at their globe traversing efforts and he didn’t have to worry about his strike rate or securing a spot in upcoming white ball World Cups/ lucrative franchise tournaments.
The first of this three match series gets underway at 9am GMT and I’ll be here to OBO the action. I’ll bring the news of the toss and teams from Chattogram shortly (from my sofa in South London) but in the meantime Simon Burnton is our man on the ground and here’s one he prepared earlier:
Matthew Mott, England’s white-ball coach, said of this series that “you can’t waste these opportunities on the subcontinent and the majority of players are pushing for ODI selection … so it’s probably more geared towards the ODI World Cup.” They go into it with a slightly changed squad, Jason Roy and James Vince having left the group while Ben Duckett and Chris Jordan have joined, the former jetting in from the Test tour of New Zealand to press his case as a white-ball batter in the subcontinent, one he made so impressively in averaging 46.6, with a strike rate of 158.2, during the T20 series in Pakistan last year.
With Will Jacks back home recovering from a thigh injury the squad is light on batters, all of whom can expect to play every game while the bowlers rotate. Jofra Archer was the only player who missed Tuesday’s training session, having been told to rest after his exertions in Monday’s final ODI. This does not rule him out of the opening match, but does illustrate how cautious England are being about his return from multiple injuries.”
