Sat, 22 Oct 2016 11:08:34 +0000
BANGLADESH moved to within 72 runs of England at 221-5 after two days of a captivating first Test in Chittagong.
Resuming on 258-7, England lost Chris Woakes to the first ball of the day and were all out for 293, debutant spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz finishing with 6-80.
Moeen Ali claimed two wickets in the final over before lunch but Tamim Iqbal made an assured 78, with seven fours.
Gareth Batty, after a world record gap of 142 Tests, ousted Tamim and Ben Stokes trapped Mushfiqur Rahim late on.
Batty, 39, is playing his first Test since 2005 but is some distance from the longest spell between Test appearances in terms of time, which is the 22 years and 222 days held by John Traicos, who played for South Africa and Zimbabwe either side of apartheid.
Bangladesh, in their first Test since August 2015, have lost all eight of their previous Tests against England. The England spinners stuck valiantly to their task, but were unable to match the consistent brilliance 18-year-old Mehedi had shown with the ball.
Returning to Test cricket after an absence of 11 years and 137 days, Batty opened the bowling, only the third time since 1928 that England have begun a first innings with a spinner.
There was no immediate fairytale as his first delivery was savagely cut to the boundary, and it was Moeen – England’s top-scorer with the bat – who made the breakthrough with a magical delivery that pitched on middle stump and clipped the off bail of left-hander Imrul Kayes.
Three balls later Moeen found more turn and bounce to take the edge of Mominul Haque, caught at slip via wicketkeeper Bairstow’s pad. But Moeen could not repeat his exploits for the remainder of the day and, though Adil Rashid dislodged Mahmudullah in the final over before tea, the Bangladesh batsman had shared a 90-run partnership with Tamim.
Left-hander Tamim, who successfully reviewed a catch to slip on 55, has now scored five fifties and two centuries in nine Test innings against England but was denied an eighth Test hundred when he got a bottom edge to 39-year-old Batty.
In the closing stages under the floodlights it was the seamers who looked more dangerous, Stokes ending an obdurate partnership of 58 by finding Mushfiqur’s edge for the first wicket by a pace bowler in the match. After seeing the pitch spin so dramatically on day one, England’s quest for an imposing total was immediately dented when Woakes was smartly caught at short leg.
Stuart Broad, no stranger to the review system, had successfully overturned an lbw dismissal but was the final wicket to fall when technology detected the merest noise from the bat off Mehedi, bowling his 40th over.
It was the 10th review of the innings, a Test record.
It was also the first time since December 1987 that all 10 England wickets had fallen to spin. England spinner Gareth Batty on BBC Test Match Special: “It’s probably evenly poised. We finished really well at the end, the seamers bowled really well and the game has ebbed and flowed a bit.
“You felt like the batters were on top at times and the bowlers came back into it and vice-versa. It’s going to be a hell of a game of cricket.
“Just sticking the shirt on itself is a huge honour so the nerves start jingling at that point, then you stick a new ball into the equation, then you have the boys at the top singing Jerusalem. If your emotions are not buzzing I would say you’re probably not an Englishman.
Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal: “I think we are slightly at an advantaged position at the end of the second day. We still have wickets in hand. We will gain the upper hand if we can bat well in the first session [on Saturday].
“A batsman is never set on this wicket, even if he is batting on 70, 80 or 100. You will be in trouble if you think you are set. Something keeps happening every over. It is a difficult wicket.” BBC
