CARDIFF: Jason Roy smashed an umpire to the ground and Bangladesh’s bowlers to all corners of Sophia Gardens in his 121-ball 153 to lead England to a tournament-high 386-6 at the Cricket World Cup on Saturday.

The explosive opening batsman posted his ninth century in One-day Internat­ionals and reached the milestone in bizarre fashion. Watching the ball dribble for four because of a misfield, Roy jogging leisurely between the wickets accidentally ran straight into unsuspecting West Indian umpire Joel Wilson.

A shaken Wilson took a while to get to his feet, as England’s players looked on from the balcony of the team’s dressing room with laughter and then in apparent concern. A doctor came onto the field to carry out a concussion test on Wilson, who was deemed OK to continue.

Roy carried on his assault on the Bangladesh attack, bringing up his 150 with three successive sixes one going 97 metres, over the longest boundary before attempting a fourth and miscuing off-spinner Mehedi Hasan to cover. It was the second-highest World Cup score by an England batsman, falling just short of Andrew Strauss’ 158 against India in 2011, and the biggest so far at this tournament as they topped their previous World Cup best of 338-8 in that same match against India at Bangalore.

Jos Buttler picked up the mantle on a blustery day in Cardiff, the highlight of his 64 off 44 balls being a straight, soaring six that went out of the ground, through the trees and toward the River Taff running parallel to Sophia Gardens. He also slapped a six over long-on before holing out to Soumya Sarkar on the boundary rope the very next delivery.

Buttler walked off the field gingerly, having appe­ared to hurt his right hip as he sprinted a single midway through his salvo.

Jonny Bairstow (51 off 50 balls) and Eoin Morgan (35 off 33) also weighed in as England topped the 348-8 made by Pakistan against them at Trent Bridge on Monday. Pakistan went on to win that game, putting pressure on the tournament hosts heading to the Welsh capital.

They have responded in style, with England’s best World Cup score and a third total in excess of 300 by a deep and powerful batting line-up that Bangladesh couldn’t tame. There were 14 sixes and 28 fours in total, with Chris Woakes (18) an Liam Plunkett (27) piling on the agony with an unbroken stand of 45 in just 17 balls.

Mehidy had the best bowling figures of 2-67 off 10 overs.

It will require a record chase at a World Cup, beating Ireland running down England’s 327 in the 2011 edition, if Bangladesh are to make it two wins from three games this tournament.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND:

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

J.J. Roy c Mashrafe b Mehidy 153 121 14 5 126.44
J.M. Bairstow c Mehidy b Mashrafe 51 50 6 0 102.00
J.E. Root b Saifuddin 21 29 1 0 72.41
J.C. Buttler c Soumya b Saifuddin 64 44 2 4 145.45
E.J.G. Morgan c Soumya b Mehidy 35 33 1 2 106.06
B.A. Stokes c Mashrafe b Mustafizur 6 7 0 0 85.71
C.R. Woakes not out 18 8 0 2 225.00
L.E. Plunkett not out 27 9 4 1 300.00

EXTRAS (LB-3, W-7, NB-1) 11 - - - --

TOTAL (for six wkts, 50 overs) 386 - - - --

FALL OF WKTS: 1-128 (Bairstow, 19.1 ov), 2-205 (Root, 31.3 ov), 3-235 (Roy, 34.4 ov), 4-330 (Buttler, 45.2 ov), 5-340 (Morgan, 46.5 ov), 6-341 (Stokes, 47.1 ov).

DID NOT BAT: J.C. Archer, Adil Rashid, M.A. Wood.

BOWLING: Shakib Al Hasan 10-0-71-0 (2w); Mashrafe Mortaza 10-0-68-1; Mohammad Saifuddin 9-0-78-2 (2w); Mustafizur Rahman 9-0-75-1 (1nb, 2w); Mehidy Hasan 10-0-67-2 (1w); Mosaddek Hossain 2-0-24-0.

BANGLADESH: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman.

UMPIRES: H.D.P.K. Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and J.C. Wilson (West Indies).

TV UMPIRE: B.N.J. Oxenford (Australia).

MATCH REFEREE: D.C. Boon (Australia).

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2019