England 326 for 7 (Roy 132, Buttler 76) beat Bangladesh 194 (Shakib 58, Curran 4-29, Rashid 4-45) by 132 runs
Jason Roy's 12th ODI century and second in five innings set England on their way to a hefty total of 326 for 7, but Sam Curran's masterful spell of left-arm swing bowling wrecked any prospect of a contest in the second ODI at Mirpur. His opening burst of three wickets in eight balls condemned Bangladesh to their first bilateral ODI series loss at home since England's last visit in 2016-17.
Adil Rashid picked away at the middle order with 4 for 45 in his ten overs, but the game had been as good as won at 9 for 3 after 14 balls, after Curran - replacing Chris Woakes in the side - bagged Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto for golden ducks in his first over before adding the key scalp of Mushfiqur Rahim for 4. England's eventual 132-run victory wrapped up a 2-0 series lead with Monday's third contest in Chattogram still to come, and so secured Jos Buttler's first ODI series win in five attempts since taking over from Eoin Morgan at the start of the English summer.
And if that record seems incongruous given England's lofty status as dual World Cup-holders, then this was a throwback performance from a team that has been forced by circumstance to put the 50-over format on the back-burner in recent campaigns, but which retains a core of senior players who, on this evidence, will still be a force to be reckoned with come the defence of their title in India this winter.
No England player has had more 50-over exposure since that 2019 final than Roy - he's featured in 31 of England's 35 subsequent ODIs, despite struggling for fluency for long tracts of the past 12 months in particular. However, this was a performance that repaid the faith, as he tailored his typically proactive methods to the vagaries of another tacky Mirpur surface, one on which it was tough for all batters to make starts, as four of his top-six colleagues showed in making 24 runs from 54 balls between them.
Roy's own hard-handed approach caused him a few early scares, particularly off the probing seam of Taskin Ahmed whom he edged short of slip and past his own stumps inside the powerplay. However, his determination not to be cowed by the conditions was the defining aspect of a magnificent innings of 132 from 124 balls. In all he struck 18 fours and a six before falling lbw to Shakib Al Hasan, by which stage he had added a crucial stand of 109 in 15.3 mid-innings overs with Buttler, who went on to make 76 from 64 in a typically understated expression of his class in tricky conditions.
Between them, England's senior pair covered off the entirety of England's first 44 overs, whereupon Moeen Ali and Curran applied a final flourish to a relay-race of an innings, crashing 75 off 54 balls between them as England added 106 more runs in their final ten overs.
Bangladesh's captain Tamim Iqbal hadn't bargained for conceding the first 300-plus total at Mirpur in five years when he won the toss and inserted England, although had Roy not taken a leaf out of Dawid Malan's one-man show from the first ODI, his gambit might well have paid off. Roy's opening partner Phil Salt managed four scoring shots in a 15-ball stay before fencing Taskin low to Shanto at slip, while the introduction of Mehidy Hasan Miraz did for Malan this time, as he played back to his second ball to be pinned plumb lbw for 11.
And though Roy kept busy to keep the score ticking, England were in danger of stalling at 96 for 3 in the 21st over, after Taijul Islam had combined with his fellow spinner Mehidy to tie down the new man, James Vince, eventually luring him outside his eyeline with extra flight and bounce to induce a nick to the keeper for 5 from 16.
Buttler, however, arrived in a mood to get things moving, with a reverse-sweep for four in the same Taijul over, and continued to work the angles to pick off the spinners with minimum risk before greeting the extra pace of Mustafizur Rahman with a sweetly-struck cover drive to bring up the fifty partnership.
That was the signal for England to pick up their tempo. In Mehidy's next over, Roy took him down the ground for the first time in the match, with a free-flowing golf swing over long-on for six, and eased through to his hundred from 104 balls in Mustafizur's next over, with a measured pull out through midwicket.
Roy celebrated with a punch of the air but overall his reaction was muted - perhaps an indication of the struggles he's endured in recent months, with no scores above fifty in last year's series against India, South Africa and Australia, and a total of 14 runs from 32 balls in three innings since appearing to rediscover his touch in the opening ODI against South Africa in January.
After his century, however, Roy relocated the sort of freedom that has characterised his most domineering displays. England went to drinks with their platform set at 165 for 3, whereupon he crashed five fours in his next 12 balls, including three in an over from the previously threatening Taskin - the last of them a full-toss that wriggled through the sliding Mahmudullah at deep midwicket, as Bangladesh's heads started to drop.
Shakib struck back in his next over, pinning Roy lbw on the sweep as he attempted one forcing shot too many, whereupon Will Jacks also discovered how difficult it can be to force the pace on this surface, as he climbed through a clip off his pads off Taskin and lobbed a simple catch to midwicket for 1 from 4.
At 219 for 5 after 40 overs, however, Buttler took up the cudgels for himself. He clipped Taskin with sublime timing through midwicket to reach his fifty from exactly 50 balls, and after powering England past 250 with back-to-back sixes off Mehidy, it took a brilliant return catch one ball later to cut him off in his prime, as Mehidy stooped low in front of the non-striker's stumps to cling onto another firm bash down the ground.
Moeen, however, got the memo, carting Mehidy for two more vast sixes over deep midwicket in his next over, en route to a bruising knock of 42 from 35, and when he mistimed a clip to midwicket, Curran clattered through the death overs, with a brace of final-over sixes to finish unbeaten on 33 from 19.
That was just the warm-up act as far as Curran was concerned. Armed with the new ball (and with a headline act at the IPL to warm up for) he tore a swathe through Bangladesh's top order, with a series of ball-on-a-string outswingers that confounded all attempts to negate him. Das threw his hands through the full length to scuff a drive high to point, Shanto opted for a block but was scuppered by half a bat's width of movement, before Mushfiqur attempted a back-foot punch and was sent on his way after Buttler reviewed a feather into his gloves.
Shakib and Tamim rebuilt as best they could in a fourth-wicket stand of 79, but England offered them little room for manoeuvre. Tamim had ground along to 35 from 65 when he attempted to launch Moeen over long-on but picked out Vince inside the rope, and when Shakib holed out to mid-off to give Adil Rashid the first of his four wickets, there could be no recourse. In the course of his spell, Rashid overhauled Stuart Broad to become England's third-highest wicket-taker in ODIs - still some way shy of James Anderson's seemingly unassailable record, of course, but a nice way to get back to the day-job after his uncomfortable afternoon on the (virtual) witness stand on Thursday.
And though he went wicketless in his nine overs, the sight of Saqib Mahmood, back in the team for the first time since suffering a stress fracture of the back last year, capped an uplifting evening for Buttler's men. They may be running out of opportunities to finetune their World Cup plans but, on this evidence, they aren't as short of matchwinners as their recent results have implied.
