Finn cuts through Tigers’ tail as England seal victory

Lord’s, first Test, day 5:
England 163/2 (Strauss 82) & 505 beat Bangladesh 382 (Junaid Siddique 74; Finn 5-87) & 282 by eight wickets

---

England wrapped up victory on the stroke of tea this afternoon with a KP cameo after first Stephen Finn and then Andrew Strauss extinguished Bangladesh’s hopes of salvaging a draw. Finn dismissed Shakib Al Hasan, Junaid Siddique and Mushfiqur Rahim before Tim Bresnan took out Mahmudullah and Rubel Hossain to leave England needing 160 off 70 overs to win - but with clouds menacing overhead.

That they reached it without troubling the light meters was down to Strauss’s untypically-swift 82 off 88 balls to add to his first innings 83, aided by steady contributions from Alastair Cook (23), Jonathan Trott (36*) and a final flourish from Pietersen, with ten runs in nine minutes.

Earlier, over lunch, the crowd were allowed on the pitch for the first time in an international at Lord’s since the 2001 NatWest series final between Australia and Pakistan, at the end of which Michael Bevan was hit on the face by a can of beer, and since when crowd incursions in England have been banned.

The fabulous gesture saw MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw awarded the Test Match Special ‘champagne moment’ award, beating Finn, Trott - who scored a double-century and took his first Test wicket - and Tamim Iqbal, scorer and celebrator of one of the most exciting centuries Old Father Time has seen.

England’s win, comfortable enough in the end, was only their third Lord’s victory in the past five years, and the fifth time in their last nine Tests on this ground that they had failed to turn enforcement of the follow-on into innings victory; in three of those Tests, the fourth innings never even got started.

The teams now head to Manchester for the second Test, with England confident of a 2-0 victory and Bangladesh, pride restored, knowing their bowlers need to match the standard set by their batsmen to have any chance of squaring the series.

• Cricinfo: England v Bangladesh first Test scorecard
• Second Test: Old Trafford, June 4-8