Lunch Bangladesh 29 for 2 (Tamim 7*) trail England 293 (Moeen 68, Bairstow 52, Mehedi 6-80) by 264 runs
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Chris Woakes was caught at short leg off the first ball of the day © Getty Images
Moeen Ali struck twice in his first over to dent Bangladesh’s resolve on the stroke of lunch, as Imrul Kayes and Mominul Haque departed in the space of four balls to give England renewed confidence on the second morning at Chittagong.
After being bowled out for 293 inside the first hour of the day, England opted to emulate Bangladesh’s tactics of opening with a seam and spin combo, with Stuart Broad sharing the new ball with Gareth Batty, who was bowling for the first time in Test cricket in more than a decade.
However, for 13 overs, Imrul in particular displayed the judgment and confidence that had carried him through the one-day leg of England’s tour, and it wasn’t until Moeen was tossed the ball for an exploratory over before the break that Bangladesh’s resolve was cracked.
First to go was Imrul, who was drawn forward to Moeen’s opening delivery, but had no answer to a faster, fizzier second, that ripped off a lively surface to flick the top of off stump. And then, two balls later, Mominul Haque was gone as well, beaten by a big turner first ball before splicing another bouncing bomb to Ben Stokes in the gully to depart for a duck.
The twin breakthroughs confirmed the suspicion that England’s first-innings total could be very healthy indeed. After resuming on their overnight 258 for 7, their hopes had received an immediate setback when Chris Woakes, the most accomplished of their remaining batsmen, was caught at short leg off the first ball of the day. Taijul Islam, somewhat overlooked on the opening day, found a perfect dipping length with his left-arm spin, for Mominul to scoop a low inside-edge under the lid.
Woakes was gone for 36, and England’s morning could have got even worse in the very next over when Mehedi Hasan, fresh from his five-wicket haul on the opening day, persuaded Adil Rashid to offer no stroke to his second delivery of the day, a fast flat bullet that looked to be demolishing all three stumps. Up went umpire Chris Gaffaney’s finger, but somehow the ball was shown to be missing leg.
Rashid, with Broad for company, set about hauling England towards the 300-mark, with a particular penchant for flicking the spinners through the leg-side. He found his range shortly before his dismissal, striking Taijul for three fours in four balls, including two such flicks plus a compact drive over mid-off, before making room to carve through point, only to pick out the diving Sabbir Rahman at short cover for 26.
Broad, who used his long levers to sweep to good effect, was joined by Batty, who got off the mark in Test cricket for the first time in more than a decade, and together the pair added four more runs for the tenth wicket before Broad became Mehedi’s sixth wicket on debut, after a rare successful review from Bangladesh – the 11th of the innings, a world record. By that stage, he had already been reprieved after umpire Kumar Dharmasena had given him out lbw to a ball that would have missed leg stump,
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo