It was appaling to note that player of the match Heather Knight walked off after being caught at mid off off the bowling of Fatima Khatom for 13, was called back by the third umpire Gayathri Venugopalan who for best reasons known to her only declared that the catch was not clean whilst the commentry team and the public thought otherwise.
Heather was on 13, and when this unfortunate incident happened, she was lucky in getting the benefit of the doubt on two previous dismissals, but we will live with that , but not the definite catch.
Heather walked back to the pavilion, but like winning a lottery, she was called back to bat.
Put into bat, Bangladesh struggled, especially in the middle overs with Sophie Eccleston claiming 3 wickets for 24 with support from Lindsay Smith 2 for 23 and off spinner Charlie Dean 2 for 23 who simply made run making herculean for the Bangladesh middle order.
Credit must be given to young Souhand Mustary who held the innings together, making 60 valuable runs in snail pace with a fine contribution of 30 from Shamin Akhtar.
England has a strangle hold on Bangladesh with 4 spin attacks but was in for a surprise package when number 8 batter Rubya Khan smashed 43 runs at the back end to help the tigers score 178 all out in 49.4 overs which looked a decent total considering the struggle faced in the middle overs.
England was in trouble reduced to 23 for 2 wickets chasing the target as Marufa Akhtar struck early with both openers back in the hutch.
Heather Knight survived a definite dismissal, thanks to a brain break by the third umpire Gayathri Venugopalan which cost Bangladesh the match as Knight went on to score an unbeaten 79. It was a turning round when Bangladesh bowling and fielding looked sublime when they had the English struggling on 103 for 6 wickets in 29.3 overs. The win predictor swung in favour of Bangladesh.
Then came the winning combination of Charlie Dean and Heather Knight. This pair stiched an unbroken partnership of 80 runs with Heather unbeaten on 79 and Charlie Dean unbeaten on 29.
It was a turnaround of excellent batting by Heather and Dean, which ultimately got them over the line.
Honestly, England was shell shocked with the bowling and fielding talent of Bangladesh. They are here to play for sure. Marufa Akhtar was excellent with the new ball, but the pick of the bowlers was Fatima Khatom 10 overs , conceeded just 16 runs and scalped 3 wickets, brilliant right arm leg spin bowling.
England travelled down to Colombo last night as they play Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which they would fancy their chances because the two weak links are Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Sri Lanka is burdend with old cronies whilst Pakistan is simply struggling.