So advantage Bangladesh. The fact that they were able to quickly score against the new ball has in all likelihood put them in the driving seat to win this Test. Despite Ansari getting rid of Mahmudullah at stumps, England will need a number of quick wickets in the morning to give them any hope of winning the game, as I feel that anything above 220 on this pitch is likely to be too much. Whereas England tried to be positive against the new ball and got out, Tamim in particular, showed why it is such a pity that we don’t get to see him bat more in Test matches. There is a skill in taking on the opposition opening bowlers on a pitch that as an understatement, is conducive to spin and whilst he may have only made 40 odd in this innings, what he did do was wrestle any momentum away from England.
To be fair to the England team, that we even got past the Bangladesh 1st innings is an achievement in itself. With the team hovering on the wrong end of another bating collapse at 144-8, Woakes and Rashid showed the top order how it’s done by producing a partnership with a lot of guts and no little skill to get England to what we hoped was a priceless first innings lead. The fact that Rashid, despite batting quite beautifully, was still the target of a number of MSM snipes clearly shows there is still very much an agenda:
https://twitter.com/JohnSunCricket/status/792270005668753408
https://twitter.com/JohnSunCricket/status/792276534866214921
Now it’s fair to say that Rashid hasn’t come on as we hoped he would have, he can bowl brilliant wicket taking deliveries but amongst those, he is likely to bowl some dross and half trackers along the way; however we’re not exactly enamored in the spin bowling department at the moment, so the criticism that has been aimed at him during his Test career so far is far from helpful. One can only look back at this piece of gold, from our favourite ex-Chief Cricket Correspondent to work out that Adil Rashid is not likely to be getting a seat at the Alastair Cook table anytime soon:
“Rashid, though, is sailing close to the wind with his club and career: there are sceptics about, some with a greater depth of knowledge than most, and his card has been marked.”
Of course having a captain that accepts that he will go for runs but take wickets if you give him the support and field that he needs would be nice. Unfortunately the ‘bowl dry’ mentality of past eras still is at the forefront of English cricket’s mindset. The fact that he came on so late for a bowl in the 2nd innings today shows quite clearly that Cook has either no faith in him or simply has no idea how to utilize him.
As for the batting, it was the same old story. The top order has failed more times than a Southeastern train at rush hour and yet again it was the lower order that tried to dig them out of a hole. Gary Ballance is the man getting the most heat from our beloved national press at the moment, and on this occasion I can’t really disagree with the MSM here, as his technique against all forms of bowling looks all over the place. I was surprised they picked him for the subcontinent tour as he looked all at sea against an admittedly world class spinner in Yasir Shah in England over the summer. However the fact the Ballance keeps failing with the bat nicely takes the heat away from another batsman who has struggled for form over an even longer period. 4 tons in the last 42 Tests is a pretty damning statistic for any batsman who is proclaimed to be world class, and you could guarantee that if this was for example Ian Bell, the MSM would be queuing up to demand that he is dropped; however this is not Ian Bell, this is captain fantastic and I have yet to see even a murmur questioning Alastair Cook’s form. The thing with Cook is that unless he is contributing with the bat, then he isn’t contributing at all. His captaincy is a mixture of conservatism combined with an inherent streak of stubbornness and inflexibility. Unless England are able to get a first innings lead and then squeeze the opposition, he seems completely lost. There is no plan B apart from hoping that Stokes, Anderson or Broad suddenly deliver a world-class spell out of nowhere. I’ve occasionally commented that the Investec Zebra would be more proactive in the field and certainly in conditions that don’t favour our seam attack, this seems like a fairer and fairer reflection of Cook’s tenure. A funky Captain he is not.
Of course, many will counter this argument by pointing out the number of runs that Cook has scored over the course of his England career and he does indeed have an impressive record; however the Cook of pre-2010 and the Cook of post 2010 are two completely different animals. He has been worked out by opposition bowlers, they know where to bowl at him and how to keep the pressure on him, there simply is no fear from the opposition side when he comes out to bat. The MSM will continue to laud him as the great new hope, the leader of our group of up and coming band of warriors and there is absolutely no chance that he will dropped until after the next Ashes series (and even then it is likely to be a polite ask as to whether he would care to step aside); however Cook to most unbiased observers, seems to be slightly lucky that we simply have no other options at the top of the order. It all reminds me of Mark Taylor when he was coming to the end of his career (except Taylor was a better captain), a very good player once, but one that was struggling to justify a place in the team on his batting alone.
The clocks go back tonight, so who knows what time Day 3 is likely to start in the UK tomorrow but I can guarantee that I’m likely to be in bed for most of the action. For those that are far more committed than me, please post any comments on Day 3 below before another cretin appears on Twitter or WordPress try to shut us down again:
Being Outside Cricket 
According to Guardian OBO, Cook finally deigned to give Ansari a proper mid-on and mid-off for the last over. Lo and behold, 5 balls later, Mahmadullah got impatient and swung and missed.
It’s not rocket science. It’s not even Year 7 science. Why is he – England’s most experienced captain ever, let’s not forget – so consistently shit?
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He’s from the right type of family. Supposedly that’s the only criteria to be the England captain these days…
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There has never been an England captain who is so tactically useless, and yet is so defended by the media. England have had succes DESPITE Cooks captaincy not because of it. And I don’t care how many records he breaks. Anybody else could have done the job, and the results would have been no different.
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Botham was tactically useless. Flintoff had his moments. But no, neither were protected by the press like Cook is. I remember Nigel Clarke waging a one man campaign against Mike Atherton in the Mirror in the 90s. We don’t live in that world any more. It isn’t about opinion, it is about motive. Do you think any of the people writing in the media actually think Cook is a decent tactical captain? That ship sailed long ago. Now it is all about his leadership as a man – and only the players can tell you how much that is worth.
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Again, we have to be fair. Cook can’t bowl for these spinners. And from what I saw, they bowled a lot of junk. Also, Bangladesh came at us, and we’ve never coped well with that. India will come at us too. If a Batty or a Moeen bowls 15 overs on this surface and ended at 1/32 or something, they’d be castigated for not going through the opposition. Stuart Broad does it and he’s lauded. These guys appear to be chasing wickets and in doing so might be pushing too hard. A theory. No more, no less.
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” from what I saw, they bowled a lot of junk”.
I can’t speak about Ali and Ansari because I didn’t see all their bowling – but I did happen to be watching during Rashid’s spell. He went for 6 RPO so anyone just seeing that might think he bowled some junk. In fact, he bowled two bad balls – a long hop hit for four and a full toss that nearly resulted in a catch to mid-wicket. He was hit for two other fours, both good sweeps by Kayes off length balls. Rashid may well have dismissed Kayes if he’d had a slip when a ball reared off a length and caught the splice. 18 of the 30 runs Rashid conceded came from ones and twos to deep-set fielders positioned to stop boundaries. Any modern spinner will have one or two boundary sweepers but the number was ridiculous and let the Bangladesh batsmen milk him. The way Rashid ‘hid’ some deliveries wide of the stumps looked to me the kind of thing a bowler who’s been told to keep the runs down does.
Rashid currently is the second leading wicket-taker in ODIs in the world in the last year – but averages over 60 for his handful of Test wickets. Either he is a much better ODI bowler – or one captain knows how to use him and one doesn’t. All I’d like is that the media would discuss the two possibilities even-handedly – but we know that with “he who must be protected at all costs” in charge that’s never going to happen.
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@Simon
Great post. It makes me wonder why Cook has to be protected. After all, since he became captain – give or take a few months when he was still in spectacular form – we have been saddled with a poor captain, *and* have lost a fantastic opener, to be replaced by a merely pretty good one.
I suppose the answer is “covering our own backs”. Those who put him there are protecting themselves, and ‘doubling down’ on their original decisions. They sure as hell haven’t got what’s best for England cricket in mind
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Rooto, great point.
I do not understand why Cook has to be so protected in 2016. You can see why (although I disagree with it) they protected him in 2014 when they sacked KP. But we are 3 years on now. Cook is begining to look like an 11 year old who still has his stabilisers on his bicycle. It’s just weird. He will be off to secondry school soon. It reminds me of the episode of Only Fools and horses when Del Boy entered Rodney in an under 14 painting contest and Rodney had to pretend to be a kid to get the free holiday.
As Simon says, why can’t the media have an honest debate about this? They are happy to call other players fragile. It smacks of something very sinister in the English cricket media. And why I have been driven outside cricket in this country.
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Blimey Mark. You’ve summed it up in just a few words. How different would the past few years have been with a good captain?
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Sean – appreciate you may not want to publish the Twitter cretin’s name in the comments section but could you email me their details so I can look up?
I don’t wish to get involved but during a tense client negotiation yesterday afternoon I was a bit lost without my BOC stress-relieving tonic (!) so would like to understand what happened.
Thanks
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” I’ve occasionally commented that the Investec Zebra would be more proactive in the field ”
BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO
Well the Anyalist thinks it’s game over and England will lose. Maybe they will, but has he not seen the Bagladesh batting order lower down? 9 went for 49 in the first innings England could still be only chasing 200 odd. I’m sure England fans are delighted at the lower order batting but in many ways it covers up the top order failures. I would quite like the tail to start failing only to expose the reality of this teams weakness, and over rated captain. Hales and Mogan could not have done any wose. Perhaps we should ask Ollie Holt?
Englands obsession with bowling dry is destroying wicket takers. Rashid being the latest. I maintain the England managment ruined Finn with their fetish for economy over wickets. If Finn took say 2/50 off an 8 overs opening spell with the new ball, and removed batsman 1 and 3 I would take that. If his bowling partner took 1 /20 at the other end then you would have them 70/3 off 16 overs. But instead it’s all about drying up the runs and letting the batsman self destruct. Maybe in these times of 20/20 it works. Certainly the Bangladesh batsman seem very happy to give their wickets away.
Don’t know what the pitch will do because there have been times when the batsman, even the tail Enders seem to be able to bat for hours. Then suddenly 5 wickets fall in half an hour. Very odd. Modern test match crixket I guess.
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Andy Flower, the legacy that won’t move on, despite every English cricket fan wishing that he had been properly cast adrift in 2014.
He now gets to bang his ‘bowl dry’ mantra to the next generation of England’s bowlers….
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We have to be careful here. There’s an enormous organisational failure, and it is at our coaches’ door. But banging on about a coach from nearly three years ago, who seems more intent in protecting his reputation more than anything, is not going to get us anywhere.
We don’t have a great spinner. We don’t even have a great number of ordinary spinners to choose from. That’s short-sightedness in the development of players, it is the inability of the powers that be to identify talent and develop it. I love Zafar, but I genuinely think he’s miles away from being a test class spinner – I’d love to be proved wrong. Rashid has hardly been encouraged by the test match media – good on Sean for that “card is marked” reference. Gareth Batty isn’t an awful selection but shows we have nothing in the tank if he is picked.
But also, if it was that easy, South Africa would have been world number 1 for a decade. I think our major issue was the failure to keep Monty involved. When he did play, as in India 2012, and felt wanted, he was great. When he did play, and wasn’t, as at Melbourne, it was a disaster.
But also, let me go back to a match about three years ago. Surrey v Middlesex. Batty played in that game, bowled well on a helpful surface. On the other, Ollie Raynor took 15 (need to check wickets), including Amla (who was brilliant). On a helpful surface, he took wickets. Isn’t that what we are looking for? Too often I think we are looking for spin bowlers to take wickets on first day wickets. They really do not grow on trees.
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Yes Dmitri, it is mostly an organisational failure. However, if Flower hadn’t ruined Monty in Oz (and a couple of others) we wouldn’t be worrying about our spinning issues. Suspect, with Monty’s difficulties since, and I praise him for what he’s done to be positive about addressing them and helping others, the best place for him would have been in a cosy, welcoming cocoon in the England “bubble”. Clearly it wasn’t available in Oz under the Rhodie in charge
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Spotted your efforts with Etheridge. Failed to see the usefulness of his snide remark. A more streetwise reporter might have spotted that Rashid’s situation would make Rod Marsh purr with delight after his dig at Bird but doubt if etheridge is that switched on
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Would agree with that about taking wickets on helpful surfaces. Leach from Somerset has lots of wickets on a helpful pitch but that apparently counts against him but what do the surfaces in Bangla and India do? Well they take spin. Better to try Rayner or Leach than hoping that Ansari might do better than Ali or Rashid when there isn’t much evidence he will.
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And such a great place to try them out
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Could someone explain me what happened with the Woakes no ball – I understood (see also Agnew on BBC) not having seen it:
– He was given out
– The TV Umpire checked for a no-ball
– It was adjudged it too high (measured waist high at the pooping crease)
– Replays indicated this was not the case
What is the protocol? Why was the ball tracker technology not used?
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Because the 3rd umpire didn’t know the rules. That’s the only possible explanation.
a) its the height the ball would have been at reaching the crease, and the batsman standing in his normal stance
b) the waist is defined as the bottom rib, NOT the waist band of the trousers
It was clearly not a no ball. Appalling umpiring, frankly.
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And there was one just before which was a no ball, but wasn’t called. Purely and simply because it didn’t take a wicket.
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NonOx
I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but it’s just getting flagrant now.
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Time for a DRS to review the 3rd Umpire? Maybe called the ICC – As in International Criminal Court.
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There is no point in DRS if the umpires are (borderline) incompetent. Dharmasena is having a shocker of a series. I have not seen Ravi having had a good series since he got elevated to the Elite Panel.
And it is always the small teams suffering at the hands of DRS. Whether that is West Indies, Bangladesh, or New Zealand. Ravi cost New Zealand the series in England in 2014, Llong cost New Zealand a share of the series with Australia in Australia, in all likelihood.
But then again, I don’t get the impression that the ICC is opposed to matchfixing, as they seem to be actively engaging in it.
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9/11 was an inside job, so I’ve heard.
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Watching the Bangladesh bowlers repeatedly ripping the ball past the bat, I realised that these really aren’t the type of pitches to help Rashid – he bowls too slowly. Slow, hard turning pitches like this are better for spinners who really fizz it down.
Moeen is probably the only England bowler who really bowls quickly enough to trouble batsmen on these pitches. We desperately need a decent left arm spinner to complement him.
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From what I saw of Ansari, his pace seemed a bit low too. Perhaps it was his gentle stroll to the crease, which reminded me a little bit of Kerrigan?
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This is a current point of disagreement between me and the ECB spin bowling coaching department.
Current ECB and CA coaching is for spinners to run up dead straight towards the batsman at a slow jog and then have this exaggerated counter rotation as they reach the crease – despite the fact that none of the top 20 spin bowlers of all time ran up like this, because its a really stupid way to bowl.
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Btw I’m talking as someone who knows nothing about the techniques of spin bowling!
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Completely off topic, but I keep an eye out on Ranji Trophy scores because they can be so dashed eclectic.
This set of fixtures is brilliant.
How about being bowled out for 36 and being in with a shout (not a great one, but a shout nonetheless)…
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ranji-trophy-2016-17/engine/match/1053551.html
Then there’s running out of partners when a triple is beckoning and you’ve got most of the way there…
Then to rub salt in the wounds, one of the two not out batsmen, one we might have heard of, might get there…
http://www.espncricinfo.com/ranji-trophy-2016-17/engine/match/1053535.html
Yuvraj’s career best is 209, by the way.
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Hey Dmitri, by all accounts Charlie Drake has written a column tomorrow about your favourate subject….. West Ham, and the Olympic stadium. I bet you can’t wait!
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I do hope those that went off their minds when England pulled out Anderson and Stokes from Lord’s read this….
My foot had been sore before that, at the end of the England one-dayers, but I put that down to a general result of fast bowling. When the England physios were made aware of it they said it was a pain barrier I needed to get through and that with maintenance over time it would get better,’ Wood told The Mail On Sunday.
‘Having had two surgeries, I went along with it. I probably shouldn’t have played but I couldn’t have sat out and let Durham go down through performance. I didn’t want to feel as though I hadn’t tried to keep the club up. I wanted to prove to the supporters that they had someone to be proud of. It sounds a bit cliché but being from the north-east we have a bit of an identity, pride in the region and typically working-class values. So I played at about 60%, filled in the Chris Rushworth role quite nicely, and managed to get four wickets bowling 80 mile-an-hour swingers.
‘I pulled my weight even though I wasn’t at my best and I managed to get Kumar Sangakkara out – that was a huge wicket. But my ankle was huge and I knew things were not right. I was having to bowl with a bent knee. Typically, I bowl with a knee that is dead straight and hyper-extends, a bit like Allan Donald’s used to. That is where I generate my pace: from the timing of that leg, the whip of my arm and hip. I was unable to do that, and I told the physio Nigel Kent: This isn’t right.’
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Rashid takes out Shakib in the first over he gets to bowl. Pity it was just 95 minutes into the session, and the lead already 214. This might be a defendable total already, but some lower order runs would not hurt Bangladesh at all.
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Oh, and that might have been a no-ball. If so, the Bangladeshis can rightly be aggrieved by the poor performance of the umpiring trio.
Mushafiqur gone as well, so now it is suddenly 238/6, with the lead still at 214.
Mind you, Bangladesh are still batting at 4+ / over. Maybe more attacking fields will be more effective in drying up the runs? Novel idea, I know …
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http://www.skysports.com/iframe/widget/video/QyOGo0NzE6zE7XtPvrNXHLqqCl2F5R6W#ooid=QyOGo0NzE6zE7XtPvrNXHLqqCl2F5R6W
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Now the umpires are telling Cook to make his men behave, after a ludicrous review for a ball to Sabbir Rahman (clear daylight between bat and ball) from the bowling of Stokes.
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Rashid has taken out Sabbir, so 268/7 at lunch (from just 60.3 overs) on the stroke of lunch. Can’t say it was great batting from the batsman bearing that in mind.
But it was a quickfire partnership of 30 invaluable runs. The lead is 244, and it seems doubtful that the tail will add much to that (Hom’s batting is streaky to say the least).
Anyone fancy chasing 260 on this pitch?
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Guardian OBO: “Rashid strikes and it spoken to by the umpires after giving the combative Sabbir a rather needless send-off”
Frustrating and challenging times for England – Away from home, stressing conditions (security / heat / food / cheeky opposition / dropped catches etc. etc. ). And still 5 Tests of this waiting
Time for some leadership in the dressing room.
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More senseless batting from the tail. Stokes picked up Taijul Islam, Rashid picked up Mehedi Hasan. Just a rabbit left (3 ducks in this series). So England will be chasing slightly over 250.
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Last pair added 20 runs. So England need 273 to win.
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Proper leadership anybody???
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Stands up Mr Duckett:
Vic Marks Ex-England spinner on BBC Test Match Special: “Cook at the other end is learning so much about Duckett. He’s probably really excited about what he sees and it’ll be the same in the England dressing room.”
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Stokes is a great talent, but I can’t help but feel that he is also, a bit of a really humourless idiot.
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I just feel that Bangladesh are bowling a touch too slow now as well. Every time they push one through, it goes past the edge – so why only try it once an over?
They need a couple of wickets now…
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Read Gideon Haigh on the health of Australian Test cricket through Will Macpherson on Twitter:
First Test against SA starts on Thursday.
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Ah, here’s the collapse…..
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Excellent session for England to tea. More than excellent start after tea for Bangladesh. 109/2, with the Duckett and Root gone in just 2.5 overs, and the DRS saving Cook’s bacon just now.
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Fucks SAKE. Every English commentator on TMS is staggered that that was “missing”.
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Now that should mean there is a vacancy in the middle order. Dreadful shot from Ballance. Oh, and Cook just gone, so 100/0 has become 127/5.
Mehedi, take a bow – 4/55 to go with 6/82 in the first innings is an excellent return for someone playing just his second Test. But you have to think, Ashwin is certainly no worse …
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Oh, and Cook’s returns (89 from 4 innings) are on par with the not-so excellent returns from South Africa (where he averaged 23). Not that it will be mentioned anywhere in the media.
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Just wait for him to get two more marks out of ten than the guy with 79 runs at 39.50 and 7 wickets at under 30…
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A 59 worthy of a big daddy
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4 in 43.
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Looks like you may get your wish Simon (and Dave). Stokes gone, bowled by Shakib. 161/7, so still 112 to get between Woakes, Rashid, Ansari and Finn.
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Rashid gone first ball, and reviews … without luck. Shakib on a hattrick, and this could be over tonight.
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Three more marks now… although his series batting average remains higher than Cook’s, he’ll have another one knocked off out of spite for reviewing that.
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Ansari survives the hattrick ball. Gone the next ball. Just 112 to get with Woakes and Finn to get them …
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Looking forward to a Steve James’ article on how send-offs are the worst thing in cricket after Shakib’s salute to Stokes.
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Overturning Stokes’ lbw based on some white noise on the ultraedge was another absolutely ludicrous decision.
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Been told off on twitter about that. I thought it had to be certain. They had to go back for me to see the blip!
That could be anything – rustle of gloves, ambient noise. But others tell me it’s consistent.
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The same level of ambient noise was visible on Rashid’s review – so why wasn’t that overturned? Consistent my arse.
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Agnew had a lot of sympathy with Dharmasena over that one (and others, as he doesn’t have 100% trust in the “infallible” ball tracking).
Unlike some we could mention…
https://twitter.com/TheCricketGeek/status/792674575754690560
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Feel a bit sorry for Taijul – I think he’s actually been the most dangerous looking bowler in the game, but he didn’t get much of a chance this 2nd innings.
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Bangladesh won, by 108 runs. England lost all 10 wickets in a session.
Mehedi Hasan Miraz has to be the Man of the Match, with 12/159.
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Shame there’s not a 3rd test – I feel Bangladesh would definitely be favourites.
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checking the odds for a 5 zip thrashing from India after this I think.😉😉
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11/2 at Skybet whilst Bet365 must be paying more attention to today as they have it at 100/30
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