England v Bangladesh: 2nd Test, 1st Day - Curried Calypso Collapso

 

England v Bangladesh: 2^nd Test, 1^st Day

Curried Calypso Collapso

October 28^th 2016

We have only had a shortened first day and already we are a third of the way through this Test. It is a denouement that seemed unlikely when Bangladesh went to Lunch in a comfortable position at 118-1 thanks to some pretty ropy England bowling. Even the one wicket was due to a bad shot to a worse ball. With the partnership prospering in the hour after Lunch  it looked as if England’s worst nightmare was coming true: watch Bangladesh make 400+ at a cracking pace and then come under pressure on a pitch taking increasing spin. It had all the makings of a match being lost on the first day. It also had the pundits looking at the pitch and suggesting that it was flat and had nothing in it.

A cynical comment was that the only way that England looked like taking a wicket was to lull the batsmen into a false sense of security and that England were doing a lot of lulling.

It worked.

First, Tamim padded-up to a pretty inoffensive ball from Moeen that’s only lethal quality was that it was straight.

It did not seem to matter, Mominul and Mahmudullah added 19 runs in 3 overs. That seemed to be their undoing. Ben Stokes was brought back in an attempt to slow the scoring and, suddenly, as if inspired, Moeen Ali’s bowling clicked.

Batsmen who had been scoring at will suddenly found Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali bowling dot ball after dot ball. Nine dots and Mominul got a lovely ball from Moeen. The next 30 balls produced just three scoring shots and Mahmudullah can only be described as having been fretted out by Stokes. As length and line tightened, Bangladeshi batsmen disintegrated.

This was Calypso cricket at its best: hammer the bowling to all parts and then collapse in a heap. Less than 23 overs after being 171-1, Bangladesh had somehow fallen to 220 all out.

A lot of credit is due to Moeen Ali, who bowled his best spell for a very long time. A lot too to Ben Stokes for kicking him into life. Five wickets in the innings. Ten wickets @ 19.2 so far in the series. 19 wickets at 32 and 375 runs at 75 so far in his last 5 Tests: Moeen is in the form of his life.

Sadly Zafar Ansari’s debut has brought back memories of Simon Kerrigan. Six nervous overs for 36 and you could almost see the mental filecard in Alistair Cook’s mind, slipping him into the “do not re-use” category. Cook was not sympathetic with Kerrigan’s plight and he has never been as effective since. A survivor of that debacle was another debutant, Chris Woakes, who was also put to the sword that day in 2013: he though wrapped-up the tail today as Ansari languished in the outfield.

Stokes’s 11-5-13-2 was heroic. It is hard to remember that he was the same player who was often too expensive to be risked a couple of years ago. He has become a brutally efficient competitor. His figures in the series are a staggering 36.3-12-59-8.

However, by collapsing, Bangladesh had 24 overs to bowl as conditions worsened and rain approached. Once again, the top order came, saw, surrendered and headed back to the pavilion. It is getting depressing.

We were told that Alistair Cook was batting beautifully in the nets. However, off-field distractions, two inter-continental flights and no match practice are taking their toll. His scores in the series so far are 4, 12 & 14.

Ben Duckett was brought in to give England some fast starts. He has contributed 14, 15 & 7.

And poor Gary Ballance has 1, 9 & 9. Surely he cannot be used in India? However, that would mean bringing back Jos Buttler (just one, brief red ball innings all year) or giving a debut to Hameed, who has not played since the warm-ups.

At 42-3, England desperately need a century from someone. And the rescue act, once again, will fall on Moeen, Bairstow and Stokes.

Reach 300 today and win. Question is: can the middle order bail out England again and get them there?