Knight survives scares to save England against minnows Bangladesh

England survived a nervy wobble with the bat to beat Bangladesh by four wickets in Guwahati and go top of the table at the World Cup.

- Raf Nicholson

Bangladesh reduced England to 103 for six chasing 179 but a 79-run partnership between Heather Knight and Charlie Dean steadied the ship, helped by the absence of Bangladesh’s key strike bowler, Marufa Akter, for the last 15 overs.

Nevertheless, the performance will raise questions as to how far England have overcome the issues which dogged them under their previous coach, Jon Lewis, notably their ability to focus in pressure moments. Bangladesh are a nation who scraped through the qualifiers for the World Cup back in April, have played no international cricket since then, and whose domestic structure is still almost entirely amateur; their coming within a whisker of slaying the giant of the No 2-ranked side in the world was never in the script.