England snatch facile win

Bangladesh’s late order collapsed in usual fashion on the fifth and last day of the first Test at Lords as England pulled off a comfortable eight-wicket win what supposed to be a tougher job at one stage.
Bangladesh resuming the day with 328 for five, the rest of the batting line up succumbed to Steven Finn’s nagging pace and accuracy and were wrapped up for 382 on the stroke of fifth day’s lunch, leaving the hosts a need of just 161 runs.
Riding on skipper Andrew Strauss’s 82 runs knock, the English comfortably crawled past the target to avoid any embarrassment which loomed around when Tamim Iqbal launched a severe attack on them on the fourth day to awaken an astonishing hope to draw the match at least.
But the rest of the batsmen were bowed down by the testing spell from Finn, who also etched his name on the Lord’s honours board after scalping five wickets and eventually took his tally to nine.
Finn started the party having scalped Shakib Al Hasan and then removed patient Zunaed Siddique Imroz to minimize Bangladesh’s resistance. Afterwards Tim Bresnan joined the party to limit the target in a touchable one. Zunaed added just eight runs to his overnight total to score 74 runs.
England had the two sessions more to overhaul the target but they started rapidly as it seemed they were eager to finish it within a session. Eventually they took just 35.1 overs to reach the target.
Bangladesh’s only success on the day was to deprive English skipper Strauss from the century.
Jothathon Trott and Kevin Petersen remained unbeaten on 36 and 10 runs respectively.
An earlier AFP report adds: Steven Finn took five wickets on his home debut as England were set 160 to win against Bangladesh in the final two sessions of the first Test at Lord’s here on Monday.
Bangladesh, following-on, were bowled out for 382 shortly before lunch on the final day with Middlesex fast bowler Finn taking five wickets for 87 runs in 24 overs.
That gave the 6ft 7in paceman, who played his first two Tests during England’s 2-0 series win in Bangladesh in March, match figures of nine for 187.
Finn took three wickets for eight runs in 15 balls on Monday to secure his place on the Lord’s honours boards.
Bangladesh, who’ve also lost all 11 of their one-day internationals against England, resumed on 328 for five having seen Tamim Iqbal make 103 off just 100 balls on Sunday.
But they’d also lost two late wickets to the new ball and much depended upon Zunaed Siddique, 66 not out overnight, and Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan, unbeaten on two as they took guard in overcast conditions favouring England’s seam attack.
Shakib, having played and missed, on 16 cut Finn straight to the bowler’s county colleague Eoin Morgan at point.
Siddique had, like Tamim, had made a first innings fifty.
But there was to be no second innings hundred when the left-hander drove too soon at a clever Finn slower ball and was caught at mid-off by Tim Bresnan for 74 to end nearly four-and-a-quarter hours of resistance.
Bangladesh were now 354 for seven, although they’d already exceeded many expectations by taking this Test into a fifth day and avoiding an innings loss.
However, their collapse continued when Mushfiqur Rahim was caught behind off Finn for nought.
One worry for Finn, bowling from his favoured Pavilion End, was that he several times fell over in his follow-through.
It was a frustrating morning for senior quick James Anderson, who saw Mahmudullah, on 14, missed in the slips by Bresnan when Bangladesh were 373 for eight.
Finn, after a spell of three wickets for 21 runs in eight overs, was replaced by Bresnan.
And the Yorkshire paceman wrapped up the innings by dismissing Rubel Hossain and Mahmudullah with the aid of a catches by England captain Andrew Strauss, at first slip, and wicketkeeper Matt Prior respectively.
Bresnan finished with three for 93 from 26.2 overs.
Bangladesh were bowled out for 282 in their first innings, Anderson leading the attack with four for 78.
England had previously piled up 505 featuring Jonathan Trott’s Test-best 226, with Bangladesh fast bowler Shahadat Hossain beating Tamim to a place on the Lord’s honours boards by taking five wickets for 98 runs.
The second and final Test of this series starts at Old Trafford on Friday.
 
Courtesy of The Independent