Monday, May 31, 2010

England beat Bangladesh at Lord's

First Test, Lord's (day five):
England 505 & 163-2 bt Bangladesh 282 & 382 by eight wickets
Match scorecard

Jonathan Trott
After his first innings double century it was appropriate that Trott hit the winning runs

By Oliver Brett
BBC Sport at Lord's

England wrapped up an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh on the final day of the first Test at Lord's.

They made up for some insipid bowling with Steven Finn moving inexorably closer to obtaining his visa for the Ashes tour to Australia this winter by taking three more wickets.

It was an innings return of 5-87, his maiden Test five-for, and the Middlesex bowler ended with impressive match figures of 9-187 on his county ground.

Captain Andrew Strauss hit 82 as England reached a winning score of 163-2 in the last over before tea.

Bangladesh were able to add only 54 to their overnight 328-5 when Finn's three incisions were topped up by a couple of Tim Bresnan wickets on the stroke of lunch.

England, who had been in the field since the middle of Friday, needed just 160 to win in two sessions.

To make the task even easier for openers Strauss and Alastair Cook, the blanket of cloud that had assisted England's bowlers in the morning quickly gave way to a period of unbroken sunshine.

And as Bangladesh bowled poorly with the new ball, Strauss was quickly into his stride, racing to 23 from the first three overs with some sure-footed cuts and pulls.

A match that had been so well set up for Bangladesh late on day four - when they were in position to avoid defeat for the first time in seven Tests against England - was over as a meaningful contest.

All the same, Strauss was dropped at slip by Junaid Siddique off Mahmudullah - though the bowler had his reward when trapping Cook lbw for 23.

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Though the clouds returned, Bangladesh stuck doggedly to spin. And after a brief period of consolidation it was easy for Strauss and Jonathan Trott.

That was until Strauss nicked an attempted cut off Shakib Al Hasan with just 13 more needed. Trott finished off the job with a boundary through square leg and Kevin Pietersen ended unbeaten on 10.

More than 9,000 spectators had resisted the urge to attend their local DIY store on Bank Holiday Monday, making a beeline for London NW8 instead.

The influx of fans surprised the MCC, which had opened just one gate. But with hundreds still locked outside several overs in, it re-directed those at the back of the queues to the Grace Gates.

On an unpleasantly cool morning, Finn was the most eye-catching performer.

Intelligently assessing that accuracy was the most important asset with the cloud cover aiding sideways movement, Finn cut back a little on his pace.

That allowed him to send down eight overs from his favoured Pavilion End in a single spell, and he struck in his fifth, sixth and seventh overs, returning 3-21.

Shakib, having played some ugly shots, finally middled a cut to a rare poor ball from Finn only to pick out Eoin Morgan at backward point, for his first Test catch.

Siddique's patient innings came to an end when he mistimed a drive, hitting a catch to mid-off. He had added just eight runs to his overnight 66 in 50 minutes.

Bangladesh were not scoring enough runs to frighten England, and Finn's final wicket came from a beautiful outswinger going up the hill which Mushfiqur Rahim compliantly nicked to Matt Prior.

The ninth-wicket stand lasted three-quarters of an hour, and James Anderson, swinging the ball both ways at pace, had no luck.

Instead, the generally less impressive Bresnan enticed outside edges from Rubel Hossain and Mahmudullah and England could finally turn their attentions to batting once again.

But before the chase could begin, the MCC took the rare decision to allow all the spectators a rare chance to wander around the famous outfield during the lunch break.

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