Cricket World Cup 2019 LIVE: England into bat first against Bangladesh

Sport360 staff 13:46 08/06/2019
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  • England v Bangladesh

    Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza decided to give his bowlers first use of a green-tinged Cardiff pitch against England after he won the toss in a World Cup match on Saturday.

    The pitch conditions, allied to the short straight boundaries at Sophia Gardens, prompted tournament hosts England to drop off-spinner Moeen Ali and recall paceman Liam Plunkett.

    But leg-spinner Adil Rashid, whose five wicketless overs against Pakistan cost an expensive 43 runs, retained his place. Bangladesh were unchanged.

    “The pitch has been under cover for the last two days and hopefully it will give the bowlers some assistance,” said Mortaza.

    “The last two matches, we have played well. Hopefully we can continue that today. We have to play at our best to beat this England team. It won’t be easy.”

    England captain Eoin Morgan said: “It’s not a problem batting first. Hopefully today we’ll show the Pakistan game was a blip.

    “We’ve played some good cricket in the tournament so far. A lot of our guys have taken advantage of home comforts this week and we’ll try and do the same after today’s game.”

    The sides have each won one and lost one of their two World Cup matches so far.

    Both came into this fixture on the back of defeats. England were surprisingly beaten by Pakistan while Bangladesh lost narrowly to New Zealand.

    Bangladesh beat England in both the 2011 and 2015 Word Cups.

    Follow ball-by-ball updates below

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