Sticky situation for Swann

Off-spinner hails stunning catch by substitute fielder Tredwell

Last updated: 14th March 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

I think we've got a very good lead at the minute. We realise it's not easy to bowl a team out twice so we're going to need everyone fresh and firing

Graeme Swann
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Graeme Swann admitted England had decided to try to "grind Bangladesh into the dirt" to give their bowlers a break after opting not to enforce the follow-on in the first Test.

The tourists ended the third day of the series opener in Chittagong on 131-5 in their second innings, giving them a commanding lead of 434.

However skipper Alastair Cook could have asked the Tigers to bat again after finally dismissing them for 296.

Off-spinner Swann, who picked up 5-90, insisted that England were still in total control, despite losing a late flurry of wickets before the close.

Strong

"We're in a very strong position," he told Sky Sports.

"I think we've got a very good lead at the minute. We realise it's not easy to bowl a team out twice so we're going to need everyone fresh and firing."

On choosing not to make the home side bat again, Swann stated: "There are a few different reasons, the management have decided this is the best way to win the match and we're 100 percent behind them.

"It was very hot this morning and after a few hours it was decided the best thing to do was go out and try to grind Bangladesh into the dirt."

Swann picked up his fifth five-wicket haul in Test cricket when he bowled Rubel Hossain to wrap up the Bangladesh innings.

England had not had things all their own way, however, with Mushfiqur Rahim making a battling 79 before falling to a stunning catch by substitute fielder James Tredwell.

"It's been a nice 12 months for me," Swann, the only frontline spinner in the England side, said on his own form.

"It was tough for a while today, it was pretty hot and sticky out there but I thought we hung in well.

"I think we bowled well, the seamers got the ball reversing and were very unlucky in that first session but Bangladesh batted very well.

"Sometimes over here you just have to stick it out when a partnership gets going."

On Tredwell's catch, he added: "It's the best catch I've ever seen off my own bowling. He was on for Alastair Cook, who definitely wouldn't have caught it."