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First Test, Lord"s (day two, close): England 505 v Bangladesh 172-2 
Bangladesh gave England a nasty shock as they defied the odds and all logic to take the honours on day two of the first Test at Lord"s. First, the tourists bowled England out for 505 when an overnight position of 362-4 suggested a larger total was comfortably within reach. Then they poured scorn on theories that their batsmen would fail to come to terms with English springtime conditions to reply with a thoroughly gutsy, if not always totally assured 172-2. A free-flowing 55 from Tamim Iqbal got Bangladesh off to a strong start - he put on 88 for the first wicket in 22 overs with Imrul Kayes (43) - before Junaid Siddique"s unbeaten 53 stretched England"s limited four-man bowling attack further on a placid pitch. In 53 overs, only one wicket fell to a bowler - Tamim was run out - and that will be a major concern to England"s management. Earlier, Jonathan Trott converted an overnight 175 into a fine 226. It was the fifth highest score made in a Lord"s Test, and Trott became the first double centurion for England for three years. He played calmly and offered no chances until Shahadat Hossain, whose switch to bowling from around the wicket had already yielded the wicket of Tim Bresnan, took the wicket of England"s chief run-getter. A thick outside edge to an attempted cut shot, comfortably taken by gully, gave Shahadat Hossain his fourth wicket and when the right-arm seam bowler bowled James Anderson to wrap up the England innings he had figures of 5-98. Shahadat, 23, who had made his Test debut five years earlier at this famous old ground, thus became the first Bangladeshi to have his name inscribed on the Lord"s honours board. He bowled particularly well early in the day when Eoin Morgan, who added just five runs to his overnight 40, nicked a good ball to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim. Then, pushing for a second run following a Trott drive into the covers, Matt Prior was sent back by his partner to be run out for 16 when the substitute fielder Shamsur Rahman hurled in a strong return. The second hour of the morning session proved painful viewing as Bangladesh fielders patrolled the boundaries and Trott and Bresnan pushed occasional singles. Nonetheless, with England 456-6 at lunch and Trott having already reached his double-century, the tourists were still striving for a foothold in the match. The first glimpse of optimism for the tourists came when Shahadat removed Bresnan for 25 before finally ending Trott"s eight-hour vigil four balls later. Brilliantly though Trott had played, it was time for the match to move on, and Graeme Swann (22 off 13 balls) and James Anderson (13 off 16 balls) got England past 500 with some crowd-pleasing strikes, each hitting perfectly-executed reverse-sweeps for four. Although the sun was mostly peeping out of the clouds suggesting a day for batting rather than bowling, England - not to mention an expectant crowd of 20,000 - would have been eyeing up several wickets before tea. They pressed hard, but none came as left-handed openers Tamim and Kayes impressed with the bat. There were some wild shots, the ball beat the outside edge fairly regularly and on a couple of occasions some over-enthusiastic running almost produced a run-out. But by and large Bangladesh were good value for their runs. Bresnan, surprisingly taking the new ball from the Nursery End ahead of Steven Finn, was worryingly innocuous. From the other end, Anderson bowled some very nice balls swinging and seaming down the hill and away from the two batsman, but it was a one-dimensional strategy: he was not straightening any balls back into Tamim and Kayes and probably needed to pitch the ball up a fraction. Tamim in particular produced some fine pull shots, while his driving off the front foot through the covers, despite lacking footwork, was also in good order. He looked none the worse for wear after a fielding mishap during the morning, when he appeared to exacerbate a wrist injury that he had taken into the match. Finn replaced Bresnan, Swann came on for Anderson, but with Bangladesh reaching 67-0 at tea there would have been some furrowed brows in the England dressing room at the interval. Tamim"s exuberant pull for four early in the final session, and a wonderfully disdainful shot across the line to the next ball, bisecting deep square-leg and fine-leg for four more, heaped real pressure on England, and the bowler Bresnan in particular. But England finally gained the breakthrough when Kevin Pietersen"s direct hit from point beat Tamim"s dive at the non-striker"s end as the batsmen set off for a crazy single. Not that the wicket opened the floodgates. Bresnan and Anderson bowled too short, while the much taller Finn, even after switching to his favoured Pavilion End, erred the other way, not getting enough balls to leap at the throats of the two batsmen. But he began to cause more problems than the two more experienced England seamers, and picked up England"s second wicket when Kayes spliced a nasty ball that cut back into him to Andrew Strauss at first slip. With new batsman Jahurul Islam providing solid support, Siddique survived some difficult moments against the short ball before cashing in when Swann returned to the attack, stroking two boundaries in a single over to reach his half-century. At this rate, the rain forecast for Saturday afternoon may provide relief for England"s bowlers, rather than Bangladesh"s batsmen - and few would have countenanced such a thought at the start of the match. This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.  |
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