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

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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

England made to pay for lack of respect

Lord’s, first Test, day 4: Bangladesh 328/5 (Tamim Iqbal 103, Imrul Kayes 75, Junaid Siddique 66*) & 282 (Anderson 4-78) lead England 505 by 105 runs

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TWO late wickets with the new ball saw England snatch probable victory from the tiger-fanged jaws of an unthinkable draw yesterday.

Mohammad Ashraful and Shahadat Hossain fell in the last five overs to hand the initiative back to England after a day in which Bangladesh’s batsmen dominated a directionless, insipid attack about which serious questions will be asked.

Victorious World Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood and Stuart Broad were rested for this match, which the England management, fans and even players regarded as an unwanted diversion from more lucrative and challenging future competitions. It is an attitude unlikely to rear its head again.

And it’s not just Bangladesh the England establishment are failing to respect - Pakistan appear to be playing second-fiddle to the following winter’s battles. Writing in the match programme, MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw said England “will want a strong showing in the summer to prepare for the Ashes...”

    

Never mind the need to put on a good show in the six Tests before then, it’s all about the Ashes; certainly, there’s no way Kevin Pietersen, for example, will have been allowed to loll about with the crowd (above left) or sulk around with his hands in his pockets (above right) for a Test agains South Africa or Australia, but for Bangladesh, cricketing etiquette seemingly goes out the window.

England, then, maybe needed to be punished - and Bangladesh took full advantage, scoring 373 runs for the loss of only eight wickets in 96 overs and one ball of some of the best Test cricket Bangladesh have ever played.

Resuming on 237/7, still 69 runs short of avoiding the follow-on, Bangladesh threw caution to the wind, Shahadat in particular swinging the willow, racing to 20 runs off 17 balls before being bowled off his foot by James Anderson, leaving Mahmudullah, Rubel Hossain and Robiul Islam to take them to within 24 runs of the target.

Until the final few overs, for England, that was about as good as it got, Bangladesh’s openers turning on the style, as they had done on Friday, chasing down the bat-again mark and doing so beautifully, with brave, aggressive batting and barely a false shot in sight.

The star of the show, the deep, red circle of energy in the bottle green field was Tamim Iqbal, scorer of the fastest Lord’s Test century in 20 years, his name etched on the honours board, the first from his country to score a century at Lord’s - and boy did he celebrate, skipping into the air, outlining an imaginary board and writing his name on it.

Tamim, eventually out for 103 from exactly 100 balls, was soon joined in the Pavilion by Imran Kayes - also dismissed by Stephen Finn - for 75, off a more sedate though no less impressive 147 balls. The strike rate and strokeplay of Tamim, and to a lesser extent Imran, was on a different par to that normally associated with Tests.

In one Graeme Swann over - his first of the day - the crowd were treated to Tamim smashing six, four and six off successive deliveries, all genuine shots, all cheered to the boundary by the sparse but enthusiastic 8,000-odd crowd.

Once the openers went, within four overs and for the addition of four runs, numbers 3 and 4, Junaid Siddique (66*) and Jahurul Islam (46) rebuilt, adding 100 runs for the third wicket before England’s late show shook things up: Jonathan Trott, England’s first innings double centurion, caught and bowled Jahurul in the 73rd over; Mohammad Ashraful was next out for a breezy 21, caught behind off Anderson; and Tim Bresnan re-arranged Shahadat’s stumps 10 balls from the close.

With no rain forecast tomorrow and another 98 overs possible, England look odds-on to chase down whatever fourth innings target is set them. Bangladesh, having played better in the past few days than even their most fervent believers could have expected, will hope to emerge with a draw, but regardless of the result, will leave with heads held high and their Test status assured.

• Day 5 tickets: £10 for adults, free for over-65s & under-16s
• Cricinfo: Follow the action live if you’re unable to make it

Who ate all the Mars bars?

FANTASTIC article from Martin Kelner in this morning’s Guardian on the preponderance of preposterous pre-World Cup adverts on our screens at the moment, from Graham Taylor’s hawking of flat screen TVs - and quite why anyone, anyone would be guided by turnip Taylor on their choice of TV set is anyone’s guess (whatever next, Steve McClaren selling life insurance? In a mockney Dutch/Northern accent?!) - to El Tel’s crooning and the new Nike advert, which premiered during the Champions League Final.

But alas, no mention of the best of them all, one of the few ads which upon viewing you can think “I quite fancy one of those, I’ll just pop down t’shop and but one”; the most nostalgic ad on our screens, Barnsey’s reprise of World in Motion, complete with cassette tape and old-skool tape recorder (one for younger readers to Wiki I’m sure) - and one in which the honorary Scouser seems to have put on a few pounds, and I’m not just talking about his bank balance.

So what more can we expect to see over the coming days till kick off? Another Pizza Hut advert in which Gareth Southgate, Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle cash in on their inability to score from 12 yards; another Little Britain meets Fabio Capello Nationwide ad, maybe with the tubby Weight Watchers mentalist barking orders at the boys or the prime minister’s gay assistant Sebastian protecting the gaffer from those nasty hacks; or perhaps John Terry and Wayne Bridge... nope, that’s tooooooo improbable!

Well, anyway, for old times’ sake, here’s the original Anfield rap; so kick back, cast your minds back and reminisce about the last time England genuinely came close to winning the World Cup:

The memoriez, the memoriez...

Apologies for the typo!

BUT it seems I’m not the only one...

No excuses, but hey! :)

• Left Foot Forward: Politics summary, sans typos

The gentry have landed

DON’T CHA just love being ruled by the pair of toffs above? It’s just like being back in the 19th century!

Welcome to the new world, the party of old Etonians and a party with no blacks or Asians, ruling us all with not a woman to be seen.

Still, at least Nicholas, Davey boy and Gideon all had fun over dinner last night; until...

Not what you expected when you voted Liberal Democrat? Voted Sarah and got Gideon? Failed to heed the warnings that only Labour could keep out the Tories? Wanna do something about it?

Well, it’s simple! Sign up to the only progressive party left in British politics: call 08705 900 200 or join online.

Together we can smash the Fib-Con alliance.

• Labour: For the many, not the few; for Britain not Bullingdon

Choose hope, choose fairness, choose equality: Choose Labour

THE Tory inheritance tax plans will give millions to each of the 3,000 richest estates in the country - including 90 per cent of David Cameron’s shadow cabinet - while at the same time taking £6 billion out of the economy and slashing child tax credits for ordinary families.

Cameron says he’s for everyone, whatever their background, whatever their wealth, whatever their circumstance; yet his policies say otherwise. If you aren’t rich - and I mean rich - married, have kids at private school, have private health insurance and private security, be afraid, be very afraid. He doesn’t care about you or your families.

Education, police, health: cut, cut, cut. And to what end? To give a tax break to the “right kind of people”, those Cameron approves of. Their inheritance tax and marriage tax plans are among the most regressive in history. On inheritance tax, Cameron and Osborne will, literally, take from the poor to give to the super rich.

Don’t let them do it, don’t risk the recovery. If you want a Britian in which everyone can achieve their potential, in which no one is looked down on, a Britain free of racism, hatred and discrimination, if you believe all families should be treated the same, that all people should be treated with respect, that those born of money do not have a divine right to rule the land, there’s only one place to put your cross.

Choose hope, choose fairness, choose equality; choose the many, choose the future. With fire in your heart and pride in what we’ve achieved, march forward to that polling station and vote for schools, vote for hospitals, say yes to 21st-century Britain and vote Labour.

• Labour: For the many, not the few

Love foxes, hate Tories

• Labour: For the many, not the few

ELECTION EXCLUSIVE: Manish Sood, the attention seeking madman, before he was insane

THIS evening, I had a chance encounter with a man who used to be taught by Manish Sood, the hitherto unknown Labour candidate for North-West Norfolk, who today called Gordon Brown the “worst prime minister ever”. He has since been disowned by Lord Mandelson and his mother.

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Let me set the scene: there I am, leafletting Wood Lane with the eve-of-poll roll-out when an Asian gentleman across the road hollers at me. “Labour? Labour?” he asks, before crossing the street and accosting me - with warm words and a cheery smile.

“Gordon Brown’s doing a great job,” he tells me. “We’d never have got out of this recession without him. He’s a very good man, a very good man.” Then, on to the subject of madman-of-the-moment Manish Sood.

Unprompted, he says:

“I was watching the news today and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing, that Indian man, the politician, criticising Gordon Brown. I haven’t seen him for nine years. He used to teach me, you know, the Indian guy.

“He used to teach me at the College of North West London. He’s from a good family, his mother used to be Mayor or something, but he was always a little bit crazy. I know it’s bad to speak badly of your [school] Master, but I think he’s doen a really bad thing today.

“One day he kind of just vanished. And then, nine years later, I’m seeing him on my tv.”

I press our random friend further, but alas, no more memories spring to mind, save that he sometimes got “quite angry” and maybe turned on Brown because “someone had probably told him to shut up” - backing up what his local party has said.

So there you have it, a quiet day canvassing round Welsh Harp lit up by a completely random, and I mean random, encounter with a Labour-supporting former student of a very-soon-to-be-former Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate. It’s a funny old world! :)

• Lynn News: Interview with a madman