England take Sledgehammer to Bangladesh

England’s dynamic openers wasted little time at the crease to take its first win against Bangladesh in the NatWest Series at The Brit Oval yesterday.

The developing stars of international cricket needed just 104 minutes to reach the visitors total of all out for 190. Both Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss were merciless against their opponents, Trescothick reaching his ninth century off just 76 balls while Strauss made 82 in the same amount of time.

The openers took a sledgehammer to Bangladesh’s bowlers, smashing over 26 fours and one six, and once again made light work of the assault fronted by the Bangladeshis. England steamed through 12 overs to reach its century, but it took Bangladesh twice the amount of time to reach the same total. Bangladesh’s innings was also marred by many rain delays.

Of the bowlers it was medium-pacer Nazmul Hossain who suffered the most, taking out less than respectable figures of 0/61 off seven overs. Although, at the tender age of 17, Hossain was one of the many offenders as the Tigers used up five blowers in vein.

Aside for the many rain delays and fall of wickets Bangladesh’s first innings was created at a moderate but respectable pace, as it stayed about the four runs an over mark.

Sent into bat, the Bangladeshis started off with the economy at four in the first three overs. Opener Javed Omar treated both Darren Gough and Jon Lewis with utter disrespect, hitting them to the boundary in successive overs.

Though Lewis got the last laugh when he caught Omar in front of middle stump at the end of the fourth over.

Bangladesh lost its nerve the next ball when Mohammad Ashraful nicked the ball to the safe hands of Andrew Flintoff.

The loss of Bangladesh’s next fifty runs came at the cost of four wickets, with Steve Harmison and his lighting quick bowling wiping out the middle order. Harmison, Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 2005, was assisted also from the soft but secure gloves of Geraint Jones, who caught the key wickets of captain Habibul Bashar and wicket keeper Khaled Mashud cheaply. Jones finished with three catches and a stumping for the day.

After a couple of rain delays, Bangladesh got their kit on and went 76 runs without a loss of one wicket. Aftab and Mohammed Rafique (30) guided the innings total past 100 and sent the run rate past four runs. They even managed to blaze a couple of balls back into The Oval’s lofty stands.

Aftab however was not just happy with that, the summer having been one long period of gloom for the Tigers. Aftab hit another amazing six over long-on to claim a half century and a small win for the Cricket minnows. He finished with 51 off 58 balls after falling short of his crease thanks to some brilliant teamwork between Jones and Kevin Pietersen. England then proceeded to rip Bangladesh's innings into pieces, taking 4/38 to end Bangladesh’s work with the bat.

Harmison finished with 4/39 off 10 overs while Gough (2/33 off 8) and Lewis (3/32 off 10) picked up the remaining wickets.

Full scorecard available here.

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