Isaac Mohammed, the nephew of England World Cup winner Moeen Ali, starred for England U19 in their defeat to Bangladesh on Friday (September 5).
Isaac Mohammed gets England U19's chase off to a quick start
The first of five youth ODIs between the sides kicked off at the Haslegrave Ground in Loughborough. England won the toss and elected to field, first, and visiting openers Zawad Abrar and Rifat Beg made a solid start. They put on 44 in seven overs before Rifat was bowled by Alex Green for 11. They were in a spot of bother in the 13th over as Azizul Hakim and Abrar departed in quick succession to leave them 69-3.
From then on though, it was Bangladesh's innings for a large chunk as Kalam Siddiki (68) put on 148 with Rizan Hossan, who scored 100. England did pull things back towards the end to bowl Bangladesh out for 292, James Minto starring with 5-68 and Byron Hatton-Lowe taking 3-49.
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The hosts would always be up against it in the chase, and their task was made even more difficult when Al Fahad bowled BJ Dawkins in the first over. Joe Moores joined Isaac Mohammed in the middle, and the pair made full use of the fielding restrictions.
Moores was out for 14 in the sixth over, but the score read 46 by that point, and Isaac began to accelerate. Having collected a boundary in each over from the fourth to the eighth, he hit six and four off Azizul Hakim in the 10th over, sending England to 83-2 and putting them well on track in the chase.
Will Bennison gave Isaac able support, and the left-handed opener got to a half-century off 34 balls, hitting four fours and four sixes. The Bennison-Isaac stand was worth 86 in 61 balls, ending when Bennison was bowled by Shadhin Islam for 36.
Isaac went in the very next over, hitting Rizan straight to cover. He departed for 75 off 53 balls, with seven sixes in all, five of them over the leg side alone.
This June, Isaac had grabbed the attention with a quickfire 42 against India U19, a cameo that included four sixes. In the county One-Day Cup in August, he made his first professional half-century in just his second List A match. He first came to prominence in the T20 Blast in June, after hitting three sixes in an innings of 32 off 15 for Worcestershire against Durham.
England were 142-4 in 17.4 overs when Isaac went, well ahead of the asking rate. But the lower-order capitulated in spectacular fashion against the left-arm spin of Samiun Bashir, who took 4-9 in 4.2 overs, including the big wickets of Thomas Rew and Jack Nelson for 25 and 21 respectively. The home side lost their last seven wickets for 63 runs, collapsing to an 87-run defeat.
The second match is on September 7, at the same venue.
Image credit: YouTube / SportsMentoring Ltd
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