|| CF Correspondent ||

It seemed England were clinical in their approach as they reached … against Bangladesh at Cardiff on Saturday.

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe bin Murtaza insisted during the pre-match press conference that defense would be the best offense against England considering the way they are playing in the recent past.

Bangladesh never gave them any scare despite they opted to bowl after winning the toss when Mashrafe announced that though there is no change in the playing XI but the decision to bowl was based upon the fact that the wicket was under cover.

But it never looked like Tigers had the killer instinct to put up a challenge against the opposition and as a result England posted their highest score in World Cup.

Bangladesh managed to hold the reign at the latter part of the game but it looked it was too late to be true.

Bangladesh's bowling attack, despite their talent, skills and fighting ability that has served the team well in the last four years, doesn't always have the killer blow.

 In a World Cup game when they tried to defend a middling total, they didn't land enough of those blows. Mustafizur Rahman is their strike bowler while Shakib, despite his superb effort with the ball, can be expected to keep one end tied up. But he does a lot more, as he is often their main wicket-taker.

Mashrafe had also done surprisingly well in the last four years despite so many injuries and modifications in his run-up, speeds and action.

Saifuddin and Mehidy Hasan are trusted with different duties in specific phases of the innings, much of which they do quite well. But the bowling attack needs wicket-takers.

The same is true of medium-pacers like Mashrafe and Saifuddin, as well as offspinners Mehidy and Mosaddek Hossain.

And it happened exactly against England as they were well on course of the game after Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow put up 128 in 19.1 overs and that too despite not taking any huge risk and just playing cricketing stroke/