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Bangladesh's first win over England

July 12, 2010 00:00:00


Bangladesh produced a performance of immense spirit and character as they secured their first victory over England in any format with a famous five-run win at Bristol. In an extraordinary finale, Ian Bell limped out at No. 11 with a broken foot to accompany Jonathan Trott, but Trott edged a cut off the third ball of the final over bowled by Shafiul Islam after making 94 to send Bangladesh into scenes of wild celebration, according to website cricinfo.
Trott had taken 13 off the five balls in the penultimate over from Mashrafe Mortaza, but James Anderson could only pop the final delivery back to the bowler. Bangladesh thought that was the victory and began ripping up the stumps in celebration, but Bell hobbled down the steps with Morgan as his runner and hoped that Trott could get the 10 needed from final over. He managed consecutive twos, but then tried to go through the off side and edged to the wicketkeeper to leave him disconsolate at the crease. He didn't even remark his guard.
What makes Bangladesh's success even more remarkable is the state in which they entered this game. Two leading players, Raqibul Hasan who top-scored at Trent Bridge and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim, had been ruled out of the series and one of their replacements, Mohammad Ashraful only arrived in the country 14 hours before the toss. Add to that Bangladesh's 24-match losing run and the previous inability of their attack to assert any pressure and this has to go down as one of the more remarkable reversals.
After the batsmen had again stuttered the bowlers lifted themselves, led by the efforts of Rubel Hossain and Abdur Razzak who shared four crucial top-order wickets as the hosts' batting suffered a collective malfunction. Trott kept England in with a chance as he added 43 with Stuart Broad, but when Broad drove to point and Mortaza only conceded three from the 48th over the balance of the game tilted towards Bangladesh.
When Imrul Kayes had laboured to a worthy, but uninspired, 76 in Bangladesh's total of 236 for 7 - during which they scored just 87 in the last 20 overs - it appeared all they had done was keep their head above water and avoid humilation. As Andrew Strauss and Craig Kieswetter added 49 in 7.5 overs it was a question of how many overs England would have to spare at the end.

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