Bangladesh V England, 2nd test, Mirpur, 20 March - 24 March

Trott apparently given out run out when he in fact wasn't. How hard is it for the third umpire to get that kind of decision right?

Henry wrote:Trott apparently given out run out when he in fact wasn't. How hard is it for the third umpire to get that kind of decision right?

how many more decisions needed to square the ledger?

England win comfortably. That was really poor from Bangladesh at the end. Basically waving the white flag.

Well done England. Similar to Aus, made a potentially tricky chase look easy.

Henry wrote:. And wasn't I being ridiculed about 6 months ago for saying that Swanny is a better batsman than Broad?

So he's had a poor run of about 6 tests (8 innings), wowzer!

Wasn't disagreeing with you that Swann wasn't a better bat than Broad btw. Just that Broad is better technically against the quick men with the short stuff and may hang around longer than Swann with a proper bat up the other end. And with Swann causing devastation from no.9 at the time why would we have wanted to change it?

England are getting quite a few bowlers who can bat Broad,Swann,Bresnan,Tredwell... perhaps Bresnan will never be a world beater but he'd do a solid job as 1st change rather than opening bowler.

Difficult to judge bowlers on these 2 surfaces. Was quite impressed by Finn although his figures didn't stack up. He's certainly way down the pecking order, but would do a job if called up.

tac wrote: Englnad might be real shakey chasing 220+ off 50 overs

Good job the target was only 207 then.

Caption competition...

JKLever wrote:Caption competition...

"We all pissed in this trophy. Deal with it!"

Is this cup big enough for all our dentures? You bet!

JKLever wrote:Caption competition...

"Here at PureBleach Dentistry, we can make your teeth whiter than even the most over-bleached cricket whites. Call us today"

Caution: bleach may dissolve your gums and face for which we are not liable

Nice win, never any doubt for the series. Despite what I say about Bangladeshi cricket, they are managing to last five days on their own turf, but now they need to put England to the Test when the series heads to Lords on May 27th.


Good all round improvement from the Bangers though. Tamim's arrogance is something they need at the top of the order, although they need someone equally as talented to help him out up there at the top of the innings.

The Bangladesh team has a distinct feel of New Zealand about it. With decent, well set players dotted around 1,3,5,6,7 (Tamim, Mahmudullah, Siddique, Rahim & Shakib), while the rest haven't fallen into place yet.

Imrul Kayes' distinct dislike for the short ball is going to wreck havoc on his confidence if he keeps playing, especially when he gets it during every Test.

If Ashraful was in form (and playing), I reckon Bangladesh might have been able to draw the game. I think one more decent batsman would help that batting order. Also, Mohammed Rafique would have done the job - in the bowling department - had he not already retired.

Well summised Smerkman, they've certainly got talent. As i'm going to the Bangles Lords test I hope they put up a better show than they did in 2005. They may be undone with the swinging/seaming conditions though - you've got to admit these 2 tests were on the flattest wickets i've seen this side of the West Indies...

Two words, JK.


Jimmy.
Anderson.


He's fresh, he's firing (well maybe) and he's playing against a minnow Test nation in his own conditions.

Well the main thing is that England have escaped unblemished and so the tour can be quickly filed away in the "Only Bangladesh" drawer.

The Bangles batted OK-ish on flat home wickets against a moderate England attack. I'd only expect them to do half as well in England which won't make them competitive at all unfortunately. Apart from Shakib and his wonderful powers of endurance there isn't a bowler of any repute in their side. They're improving (at least Richard Johnson didn't run through them this time) but tests against them are still of little consequence.

Is Cook unique in scoring centuries in his first 2 Tests as captain?

Nearest to it must be Greg Chappell's two centuries in his first Test as captain against the Windies in December 1975.

If there are any other batsmen/captains whose first two tests were against Bangladesh you'd think not.

JKLever wrote:Caption competition...

Are you looking to talk to men in your area? Call...

So, what did we learn?

Bresnan's a solid cricketer. Nothing remotely special with ball or bat, but a 100 percent-er who may well find himself inked in to the number seven spot as fourth seamer for a while to come.

Finn looks handy. Cook didn't fancy him at all, mind.

Cook's captaincy was shite. But it didn't hamper his batting. And it's nice to see him developing a range of strokes rather than just hanging on for grim death from the off - an edge behind waiting to happen.

Broad's gone backwards.

Belly is still the bomb when coming in to bat as the last of the specialist batsmen, when all the big boys have first had a crack at it. He's Marcus North. But, then, someone has to be.

And that's it.

And Jonathan Trott can't catch or field to save his life...

All I can say about the umpiring is "Come back Darrell Harper all is forgiven"

Wish I had been able to see more of this series instead of having to rely on second hand summaries and dodgy cricinfo commentary.

Starting early morning and finishing in the morning aren't great hours. I woke up this morning just in time for the 20 minute tea break...

Search for the user meagainah on dailymotion for 30 mins highlights on each day.

Or check out the skysports website. They usually have about 30 minutes or so worth of daily action.

But, honestly, you missed nothing. Nothing.

JKLever wrote:Search for the user meagainah on dailymotion for 30 mins highlights on each day.

We can post dailymotion on here. I think. Used to be able to anyway...