BAN v ENG, 2nd Test Review: Bangladesh create history and square the series

Steven Finn looked back at Kumar Dharmasena with optimism. Little did he know that Bangladesh was the team with the reviews and England had lost all of their reviews. Nasser Hussain, the former England batsman and skipper exalted in joy when a flipper from Mehedi Hasan trapped Steven Finn just below the thigh pad.

As Hussain said later, it was only fitting that the 19-year old was the one to take the wicket and complete the series. As Hussain also went on to mention that the youngster was one for the future and it was fitting since he was the best bowler in the series. Mind you, there were some experienced players in the series.

The day began with Bangladesh on a 152/3 with Imrul Kayes going strong. It was just the third day’s play, something that not many expected the match to end. While Kayes looked as solid as ever, it was Shakib-Al-Hasan who was a part of proceedings by slogging the England spinners at will.

Perhaps it was good riddance on the part of Alastair Cook to keep the spinners operating from both ends in tandem, but, it was seldom working against two of the most technically correct batsmen in the Bangladesh side.

It was almost 15 overs after the day had begun for the first wicket to fall. Moeen Ali was the one to gather the breakthrough for the Brits as Imrul Kayes perished with the lead hovering ever so closer to the 200-run mark.

In spite of the wicket, it was the skipper and his deputy Mushfiqur and Shakib who began to pile on the runs. While Shakib was making things happen with the bat, it was Mushfiqur who was dismissed soon after amassing just the nine runs. However, before that, the southpaw also lost his wicket after he was cleaned up by a peach of a delivery from Adil Rashid.

Shuvagata Hom and Sabbir Rahman were the only other players who managed to cross over to scores into the single-digit category with the rest of the lower middle-order and the tail succumbing to a few single digit scores. Thus, yet another collapse prevailed as the hosts were blasted out for 293 thus requiring England to score 272 to complete an improbable whitewash.

Also read: Twitter Reactions: Bangladesh register historic Test win over England

The innings got off to the perfect star as far as Ben Duckett and Alastair Cook were concerned. They both complemented each other quite well as they stitched a 100-run partnership. However, this proved to be a bit off the pace for someone such as a Cook as he watched Duckett slam the spinners over and out of the park.

The collapse was triggered by youngster Mehedi Hasan when he first removed Ben Duckett following the latter’s well compiled 59. Alastair Cook followed suit as he too fell to the uncanny spinner. This was the point that quite effectively turned the tables on the Brits.

Ben Stokes was perhaps the only one to impress with some impressive batting performance and scoring 25 runs. However, the rest of the batsmen were all dismissed for single-digit scores four of whom had scores of naught.

The encounter concluded with Steven Finn asking Dharmasena for a review only to realize that there were no reviews left.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh, 1st innings: 220 all out

England, 1st innings: 244 all out

Bangladesh, 2nd innings: 296 all out (I Kayes 78; A Rashid 4/52)

England, 2nd innings: 164 all out (A Cook 59; Mehedi Hasan 6/77)

Man of the Match: Mehedi Hasan

Man of the Series: Mehedi Hasan