Kieswetter Ton Sets Up England Series Whitewash
Craig Kieswetter’s maiden one-day international century set up England for a 45-run victory and a 3-0 series whitewash in Bangladesh Friday.
The South African-born opener, playing in his third one-day international since qualifying for England, hit three sixes in a mature 107 from 124 balls.
Eoin Morgan (36) and Luke Wright (32 not out) helped England reach 284-5.
Seamer Tim Bresnan (4-28) led England’s attack superbly as the Tigers finished on 239-9 in Chittagong. Kieswetter, 22, batted steadily to bring up his first 50 off 80 balls but then accelerated towards the end of the innings as England blasted 107 from the last 10 overs.
The Somerset batsman was bowled by left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak in the 47th over but his departure gave Wright the chance to hit a 13-ball 32, featuring two sixes. Having lost the toss for the first time in the series, England faced the unfamiliar task of assessing a Bangladeshi wicket and trying to work out what would be a good total. Alastair Cook has given every indication that captaincy suits his batting, and he dominated an opening stand of 59 in 12.4 overs with Kieswetter before edging a cut off Shakib Al Hasan. Kevin Pietersen’s joyless run with the bat in 50-over internationals continued, this his 10th innings in succession without a half-century as he contributed 22 from 36 balls before he was given out lbw well forward to Razzak.
Bangladesh were in need of big innings and big partnerships but instead had to make do with promising, unfulfilled offerings. Aftab Ahmed reached 46 with some high-class shots but was run out following a mix-up with Mushfiqur Rahim. Mushfiqur did his best to atone for that but failed to get past the 40s, ending a fluent innings with a loose sweep shot off Swann that flew straight to deep midwicket. The last viable hope was the skipper Shakib, but he got a very poor lbw verdict from umpire Haque, given out as he attempted a sweep off Pietersen to a delivery that at no point threatened to hit the stumps.
Soon afterwards, the required rate hit eight runs an over and it quickly rocketed beyond that. Swann (2-38) picked up a second wicket in another polished performance, and Bresnan chipped in with a couple more.
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