Key events
Fifty for Heather Knight!
37th over: England 140-6 (Knight 51, Dean 13) Knight drives the legspinner Shorna for a single to reach a crucial half-century from 86 balls, with five fours and a six. It was a desperate struggle at the start: she was given out twice, with both decisions overturned the review, and then survived what looked a clean catch. But she has batted with increasing authority, showing the value of all her experience, and seems to have this runchase under control.
Seems.
36th over: England 137-6 (Knight 49, Dean 12) Knight is picking – and executing – her attacking shots so well. She runs down to the track to blast Maghla over her head for four, a carbon copy of the shot she played off the same bowler four overs ago.
Not for the first time tonight, Bangladesh really need a wicket.
35th over: England 130-6 (Knight 43, Dean 11) Knight lifts Rabeya over mid-on for two, an ultimately safe shot in a decent over for England. The target is down to 49 from 90 balls.
34th over: England 124-6 (Knight 40, Dean 8) Nigar Sultana decides it’s time to play her trump card, Fahima Khatun. Dean gets in a tangle with a spitting legbreak that hits her on the back leg; too high for an LBW appeal but beautifully bowled.
Just a single from the over. Fahima’s figures are exceptional, 8-1-14-3, but that means she only has 12 balls to bowl.
33rd over: England 123-6 (Knight 40, Dean 7) Dean slaps a long hop from Nahida to the cover boundary. The win predictor barely know what day it is, never mind who’s going to emerge victorious.
I forgot to mention that Marufa Akter, whose new-ball spell put England in trouble, has been off the field for a while, possibly with cramp. That might be a blessing in disguise. As well as she bowled at the start, some of England’s batters might prefer pace on the ball at this stage.
32nd over: England 117-6 (Knight 39, Dean 2) Knight skips down the pitch to whack Maghla back over her head for four. That’s a brilliant shot from Knight, who has quietly played herself into form during this innings.
At one stage Knight had 16 from 53 balls and had been given out two or three times; since then she’s hit 23 from 23 balls with barely a false stroke.
31st over: England 112-6 (Knight 34, Dean 2) Shorna’s first poor ball is swept round the corner for four by Knight, with three singles completing a decent over for England. Sixty-seven to win from 114 balls.
30th over: England 105-6 (Knight 28, Dean 1) England need their spinners to win the match – with the bat.
Yep, it was plumb LBW. Capsey was hit on the back leg by a wonderful delivery from Maghla, the left-arm spinner; it curved in from round the wicket, quite wide on the crease, before straightening sharply to beat Capsey’s work to leg and pin her LBW.
WICKET! England 103-6 (Capsey LBW b Maghla 20)
Alice Capsey tries to review – but she’s out of time and the umpires send her packing! I think it was out anyway.
29th over: England 102-5 (Knight 26, Capsey 20) A good over from Shorna, who hasn’t shown any sign of nerves despite being an 18-year-old bowling at a crucial stage of a vital World Cup match.
28th over: England 100-5 (Knight 25, Capsey 19) Maghla replaces Fahima, who has three overs left to bowl, and almost strikes when Capsey mistimes a lofted shot that lands short of mid-off.
A single down the ground brings up the England hundred. They need 79 from 132 balls.
27th over: England 98-5 (Knight 24, Capsey 18) Time for another legspinner, the teenager Shorna Akter. Capsey slices her first ball deliberately for four, beating the fielder at short third. Shorna responds with a beauty that rips past the edge.
26th over: England 92-5 (Knight 23, Capsey 13) Fahima has changed ends, which is interesting given she bowled a spell of 6-1-12-3 at the other end. Capsey shows plenty of respect, taking just a single off the final delivery.
25th over: England 91-5 (Knight 23, Capsey 12) Capsey cuts Rabeya expertly to the cover boundary, which prompts an arm-waving row between the captain Nigar Sultana and one of her team, presumably the bowler Rabeya.
Capsey’s attacking approach makes her dangerous in a low-scoring game. But Bangladesh know that if they get her out soon, they’re into the bowlers with England still needing plenty.
At the halfway point, England need 88 runs with five wickets remaining.
24th over: England 86-5 (Knight 23, Capsey 7) Knight is playing with greater assurance now; it’s 10 overs since she was last given out, for goodness sake. England need her to be there at the end, ideally with another not-out batter. This looks increasingly certain to go to the wire.
23rd over: England 83-5 (Knight 22, Capsey 5) Alice Capsey gets off the mark with a very controlled boundary, driven through extra cover off the back foot. I don’t think she’ll try to win this game by hanging about until the 50th over.
Lamb is out! Yep, that’s the correct decision, and it was a bit of a surprise to everybody that the catch was being checked because Nahida took the ball at chest height.
That check briefly overshadowed what was a desperately ill-conceived from Lamb.
Lamb is asked to wait by the boundary while they check the catch. Nahida took the ball cleanly before falling over, and the third umpire wants to check whether she brushed the ball against the ground when she landed. It looks a clean catch to me, although there is a degree of doubt so I wouldn’t put the farm on this being given out.
WICKET! England 78-5 (Lamb c Nahida b Fahima 1)
This is a horrible shot from Emma Lamb. She tried to repeat Knight’s stroke in the previous over, only to drag Fahima straight to mid-on. England are back in bother.
22nd over: England 78-4 (Knight 22, Lamb 1) Heather Knight is clearly reading the OBO out in the middle. She targets Rabeya, skipping down to chip elegantly over mid-on for six. That’s Knight’s first boundary in 16 overs and England’s first in 11.
The non-striker Lamb survives a precautionary run-out referral when the bowler Rabeya deflects the ball onto the stumps.
21st over: England 72-4 (Knight 16, Lamb 1) Knight’s experience makes her the key player now, even though her bat has no middle at the moment and she’s already been given out two or three times.
A single and a wide from Fahima’s fifth over. It’s an odd thing to say with the required rate at 3.68 per over, but England may need to start thinking about targetting certain bowlers. Fahima is not one of them.
20th over: England 70-4 (Knight 15, Lamb 1) Bangladesh are using legspin from both ends through Rabeya and Fahima. Lamb is beaten, trying to cut Rabeya, and can’t pierce the infield during another maiden over.
England are going nowhere, and they’re not even doing it fast: the last nine overs have yielded 15 runs and two wickets.
“Hmm, cricket is many many streets ahead of another sport I could mention in its use of technology for decision making, but the low catch thing has been the grit in the oyster for so long,” says Tom Hopkins. “I feel like I’ve been aware of ‘the foreshortening effect’ for longer than I care to remember and yet we persist with using TV replays that we know can be misleading. Surely with any technology in any walk of life you need to properly understand its limitations and work within them. Wishful thinking serves no-one.”
19th over: England 70-4 (Knight 15, Lamb 1) Good thing England picked seven batters. Next in is Emma Lamb, who works her first ball past slip for a single.
Fahima’s figures are quite something: 4-1-5-2.
Dunkley is out! It was hitting leg stump, umpire’s call, so the on-field decision was crucial. England are in big trouble now. And Bangladesh are sniffing an historic achievement: their first victory over England in any format. I think it’s only the sixth game between the sides – four T20s and one ODI – but this would be seismic stuff.
WICKET! England 69-4 (Dunkley LBW b Fahima 0)
This is starting to smell of a doomed England runchase on the subcontinent – and now it positively reeks! Dunkley has been given out third ball for nought, and though she has reviewed the decision, it looks well and truly out.
WICKET! England 69-3 (Sciver-Brunt c sub b Fahima 32)
It just got even more interesting! Sciver-Brunt skips down confidently to Fahima, only to whip a low full toss straight to midwicket. The substitute Farzana takes a nonchalant catch to give Bangladesh the wicket they craved.
18th over: England 69-2 (Knight 15, Sciver-Brunt 32) A quiet over from Rabeya makes it 14 runs from from the last seven overs. This is an interesting period in the game.
17th over: England 67-2 (Knight 14, Sciver-Brunt 31) Fahima is bowling around 42mph, getting some nice flight, and so far England haven’t worked how to score off her. Don’t believe me, just look at her bowling figures: 3-0-4-0.
Since her last boundary, Sciver-Brunt has scored 7 from 21 balls. Nothing for England to worry about yet – but if she goes, things could get very tricky.
16th over: England 66-2 (Knight 13, Sciver-Brunt 31) Sciver-Brunt has settled down after that early flurry of boundaries. She needs to hang around because Knight can’t get going at all; she’s the subject of a strangled LBW shout after being hit outside the line by Nahida.
Knight has 13 from 42 balls, Sciver-Brunt 31 from 34.
