Dawid Malan century guides England to win over Bangladesh in ODI opener

A battling century from Dawid Malan guided England to victory over Bangladesh in a low-scoring opener to the one-day international series in Mirpur on Wednesday.

England had been set a modest target of 210 thanks largely to Najmul Hossain Shanto's maiden ODI fifty, while Moeen Ali, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid each claimed two wickets.

The visitors looked in trouble at 65-4 – with Jason Roy (four), Phil Salt (12) James Vince (six) and Jos Buttler (nine) all out cheaply – but Malan held the innings together with a 145-ball 114 to take the touring side over the finish line with eight balls to spare.

The left-hander smashed eight fours and four sixes but more importantly held his nerve as wickets tumbled at the other end on a tricky surface to bring up his fourth ODI century with a boundary in the 46th over.

“I've spent a fair bit of time here in Bangladesh and at this ground and it definitely helps to have a little bit of experience,” said player of the match Malan, who has played domestic cricket in the country.

“I definitely didn't find it easy. I said to Jos Buttler if they had got another 30 or 40 more, it would have been incredibly tough to chase but credit to the way we hung in there with the ball and pegged them back after they had a decent start.

“We were expecting to lose wickets on a pitch like that. I don't think you can walk out thinking you're going to knock it off two down.”

The hosts made a decent start after electing to bat first, with captain Tamim Iqbal making 23. But after Chris Woakes earned the first breakthrough with the wicket of Liton Das, England struck whenever a partnership was developing.

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