Root became England’s highest run-getter in ODI World Cups upon reaching 63 but Bangladesh and Shoriful made a commendable comeback as death overs approached. Mahedi broke the threatening stand to deny Malan a 150, while Shoriful dismissed both Buttler and Root with knuckle balls. He also knocked over the off-stump of Liam Livingstone first ball with a cutter to finish with figures of 3 for 75, despite leaking 45 in his first-five alone.

The regular wickets meant England weren’t allowed the momentum for a typical death overs explosion. Mahedi also went on to rectify his figures with the wickets of Harry Brook, Sam Curran and Adil Rashid to allow England only 102 runs in the last 13 overs. That, however, proved too tall a mountain to climb once Topley took the new ball.

Litton Das (76) had kicked off the tall chase positively, with a hat-trick of boundaries off Chris Woakes, but it was quickly offset by the left-arm pacer’s twin strikes in an excellent first World Cup over for him. Topley got rid of both left-handers for ducks – Tanzid Hasan caught at slip and Najmul Shanto caught at point – off successive balls, both off away swingers. He claimed a third left-hander in Shakib, knocking over the off-stump to reduce Bangladesh to 26/3 inside six overs. Woakes lent further blow when he had Mehidy nicking behind yet another out swinger.

Even though Topley had killed the chase in the powerplay itself, Bangladesh forged some partnerships to delay the inevitable. Amidst the top-order collapse was a fluent Litton, who not only held one end up but also raced to a quick 38-ball fifty. And while he did the bulk of scoring for Bangladesh during his stay in the middle, the effort wasn’t matched at the other end as Mushfiqur took his time settling in. Mark Wood consistently hit speeds of 147 kmph+ and proved difficult to put away but Litton took on Adil Rashid’s spin in the very first over, slog-sweeping for a six to relieve some pressure.

Wokaes however put an end to the opener’s fight with an off-cutter, getting Litton to edge behind after a 66-ball 76. With that went away Bangladesh’s hopes of even a miracle comeback. Mushfiqur did raise a 60-ball fifty and a 42-run stand with Towhid Hridoy (39) but became Topley’s fourth victim on the day, taking on the short ball and slicing it straight to third man. The 201 required off the last 19 overs with just four wickets in hand was always going to be an uphill task. Under lights, the resistance offered by the lower order did help Bangladesh drag the game to the penultimate over, but wasn’t nearly enough to prevent a drubbing.

Brief scores:
England 364/9 in 50 overs (Dawid Malan 140, Joe Root 82, Jonny Bairstow 52; Mahedi Hasan 4-71, Shoriful Islam 3-75) beat Bangladesh 227 all out in 48.2 overs (Litton Das 76, Mushfiqur Rahim 51; Reece Topley 4-43, Chris Woakes 2-49) by 137 runs