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Bangladesh v England Day 1

Wednesday, October 22 2003

Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat on a slow-looking pitch devoid of any greenery. The sky was somewhat overcast with more than a prospect of a shower. There would be three debutants on show : for Bangladesh, Enamul Haque Jr and for England, Rikki Clarke and Gareth Batty.

England opened with Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison bowling to Hannan Sarkar and Javed Omar who both tried to leave as many deliveries as possible in the heavy overhead conditions. Omar opened his account with a single off Harmison in the fourth over of the morning, but three balls later the heavens opened and sent players and spectators alike scurrying for cover.

There then followed an interminable age of mopping up, liberal sprinklings of sawdust willy-nilly and numerous inspections before play could resume again a quarter of an hour before the scheduled close. There would be a further maximum of 19 overs with floodlights supplementing the illumination provided by the setting sun.

Upon the restart, Hoggard was very much on the spot, extracting prodigious amounts of swing in what was becoming a sultry evening. Harmison, on the other hand, took a couple of overs before he settled. Sarkar struck the first boundary of the match when he opened the face of his bat and ran a short ball from Hoggard neatly between the two gulleys to the third man boundary.

In the sixth over after the restart, Harmison achieved the breakthrough with his first really venomous delivery of the day, a short ball which was upon Omar too quickly for the opener's comfort. The ball took the shoulder of the bat and looped invitingly to Rikki Clarke in the gulley who took a straightforward catch to leave Bangladesh on 12-1.

Four balls later, Sarkar was fortunate when a fuller delivery from Harmison thudded into his pads with the batsman offering no stroke, but umpire Asoka De Silva replied in the negative to the vociferous appeal.

A lovely, flowing on drive by Sarkar brought him three through midwicket when Harmison erred in line, a shot which would have brought a much-deserved boundary on a slightly less saturated outfield as the batsmen sought to re-assert themselves. In the following over, Sarkar, looking in fine touch, was again denied a boundary when a flowing square drive off Hoggard stopped a few tantalising inches short of the fence at point.

The extra pace of Harmison accounted for the dangerous Habibul Bashar for just 2 with the total on 24 when the batsman flashed at another lifting delivery on off stump and Trescothick made no mistake with a far from simple catch in the slips which flew rapidly at shoulder height. After a couple of wayward overs, Steve Harmison had settled into a highly impressive spell and put England well and truly in the driving seat.

At the end of the 15th over with Bangladesh on 24-2, the light meters came out and everyone trooped off once more despite the floodlights, an exceptionally farcical situation which the ICC ought to consider looking at forthwith. If the game had been a one-day international, the light would have been eminently playable.

Close of play summary

Bangladesh 24-2 (Hannan Sarkar 18*, Rajin Saleh 0*, Harmison 2-9)

Posted by Eddie