England face uphill task

Tourists frustrated on day two as Tigers roar back

By Joe Drabble   Last updated: 22nd March 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

England face uphill task

Collingwood makes the long walk back after a three-ball duck

Second Test Match
Mirpur
Bangladesh 419 (Tamim Iqbal 85, Naeem Islam 59 no, Mohammad Mahmudullah 59, Shafiul Islam 53, G P Swann 4-114) v England 171-3 (I J L Trott 64 no)

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Bangladesh posted their third highest Test match total of all time as England came under serious pressure on day two in Dhaka.

Tail-end resilience from Naeem Islam (59) and Shafiul Islam (53) propelled the hosts up to an imposing first-innings total of 419 - reigniting home hopes of levelling the two-Test series in the process.

Those hopes were enhanced further when Alastair Cook (21) fell early in England's reply, however Jonathan Trott dug deep to finish the day unbeaten on 64 with the tourists well set on 171-3.

Kevin Pietersen brought up a significant milestone during his patient innings of 45, the 29-year-old reaching 5,000 Test runs quicker than any other player.

Superb

But the right-hander was made to wait longer than he might have expected before getting his chance out in the middle.

Bangladesh, resuming day two on 330-8, curtailed England's progress with a superb tail-end counter-attack.

Number 10 batsman Shafiul, whose previous best Test score was 13, flayed 11 boundaries in his 51-ball 53 as the Tigers surged towards 400.

Tim Bresnan (2-57) eventually caught his edge through to Matt Prior, but Naeem saw Bangladesh past 400 for just the seventh time before Graeme Swann (4-114) wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Rubel Hossain (17).

England started their response shortly before lunch and new-look opening duo Cook and Trott safely negotiated the tricky session which followed.

Trott, promoted to opener in place of the axed Michael Carberry, took 33 balls to get off the mark as Cook took a chief role in proceedings.

The England skipper played with fluency until a rash moment saw his slog-sweep pick out Imrul Kayes on the deep mid-wicket boundary.

Trouble

Pietersen, batting at number three for the first time in Tests, got off the mark with a risky single but was restrained thereafter courtesy of some tight bowling from the Bangladesh spinners.

The second-wicket pair battled hard with runs hard to come by, and, when Pietersen nudged a single off his pads to reach 45, in doing so he became the fourth-youngest England player to score 5,000 runs behind David Gower, Michael Atherton and Marcus Trescothick.

But that was to be his last scoring shot as once again a slow left-armer brought about his downfall.

As has regularly been the case during Pietersen's career, his dismissal was a curious one, the right-hander walking down the track to a Shakib Al Hasan long hop and tamely spooning a catch to Imrul at short extra cover.

Paul Collingwood, trapped lbw by a full in-swinger from Rubel, came and went for a three-ball duck and England all of a sudden found themselves in trouble at 107-3.

However, Trott stood firm before passing 50 for just the second time in his Test career and will resume day three with Ian Bell (25no) for company.