Bangladesh pulled a scintillating performance to knock England out of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 after they recorded a remarkable 15-run victory over Eoin Morgan's men in their Pool A tie on Monday at the Adelaide Oval.
Fast bowler Rubel Hossain ripped apart England's batting line-up to bundle England out for 260 runs, 15 runs short of the target, with nine balls to spare, after Mahmudullah's ton had lifted Bangladesh to a respectable total of 275-7 in their allotted 50 overs.
Put in to bat first, Bangladesh recovered from a shaky start, having lost both their openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes for their individual two runs each, to take it from 8-2 in the third over to 94-3 in the 21st over, thanks to Soumya Sarkar's 40-run knock and 86-run third wicket partnership with Mahmudullah.
Bangladesh again lost a wicket and were struggling at 99-4 in the 22nd over, before Mahmudullah went on to make it 240-5 in the 46th over with his brilliant 103-run knock. He put up a 141-run fifth wicket stand with Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored his individual 89 runs to further Bangladesh's score.
James Anderson and Chris Jordan were each claimed two wickets apiece for England, while Stuart Broad and Mohammad Ali claimed one wicket each.
England got off to a solid start but failed to build momentum from it to score the winning runs. Opener Ali knocked 19 runs before returning back to the pavilion as he got run out, while Ian Bell hit a splendid knock of 63 runs off 82 deliveries, before he fell prey to Hossain's express delivery.
Alex Hales (27) and Joe Root (29) also failed to give any substantial input to England's scoreline. The only ray of hope for England came when wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler knocked a brisk 52-ball 65 runs that included six fours and one six to stable England's sinking ship.
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Buttler looked to have taken England nearer to victory and was helped on the pitch by Chris Woakes, who remained unbeaten on his individual 42 runs, but the lower-order fell cheaply with Chris Jordan and James Anderson fell for ducks, as Morgan's men were bundled out for 260.
Mahmudullah was named the Man of the Match for his brilliant ton that lifted Bangladesh to the respectable total.
Bangladesh has booked a quarterfinal berth in the World Cup with their win over England in Pool A, with New Zealand, Australia, and Sri Lanka the other quarterfinalists from their group.
A disappointed England skipper, Morgan, said that it is pretty poor to be knocked out this early from a World Cup, adding that he thought the guys bowled well at half time, especially with the short boundaries and the way the wicket played.
Morgan claimed that they bowled reasonably well, but they couldn't quite match it up with the bat, adding that he cannot pick where it went wrong for England and insisting that he is gutted at the moment.