A tall story for England as Steven Finn carves his name into history
A solid 82 from captain Andrew Strauss guided England to a convincing eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh on the fifth day of the first Test at Lord’s; a day that beanpole Middlesex fast bowler Steven Finn will never forget.
Strauss provided the backbone of England’s successful afternoon chase of a modest 160, a total that was set after the tourists were eventually dismissed for 382 at the end of the morning session, with Finn carving his name on the Test honours board at the home of cricket, his home ground.
The 6ft 7in bowler ripped through the Bangladesh lower order, eventually taking five for 87 to give him match figures of nine for 187 in his first Test on home soil.
Resuming on 328-5, and following on after England’s first innings 505, the visitors struggled to handle Finn’s pace and bounce, and lost skipper Shakib Al Hasan (16), the impressive Junaid Siddique (74) and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim (0) to Finn, the last of which bringing up the 21-year-old’s fifth wicket of an exceptional innings.
Tim Bresnan cleaned up the tail with two quick wickets before lunch, leaving England with two sessions to chase 160 and earn their first Test win of the summer, continuing what has been an excellent few months for English cricket.
They would only need one of those sessions as, despite Alastair Cook’s (23) unfortunate lbw dismissal to a Mahmudullah delivery that looked too high – an echo of his first-innings demise, Strauss and Jonathan Trott’s partnership of 80 steered the hosts steadily towards their target.
Strauss would fail to see it out though, as he feathered a Shakib delivery to Mushfiqur with England needing just 13 more to win.
A couple of boundaries from Kevin Pietersen ensured that they did that just before tea, despite a struggle to eventually get over the line, with Trott ending on 36 not out to add to his first innings 226.
An improving Bangladesh will take a lot from their defeat though, not least the additions of the first two of their players to make it onto the Lord’s honours board.
Shahadat Hossain’s first innings five for 98 was added to by Tamim Iqbal’s brilliant 103 as the visitors followed on, but Trott and Finn were the stars for the hosts.
Rain on the third day of this Test, the Saturday, had threatened to scupper England’s chances, but Finn’s persistence and accuracy was vital this morning, and allowed England to build upon their first innings, an innings that had been lit up by Trott’s titanic double ton.
The second and final match of this series starts at Old Trafford on Friday, with the confident hosts heading into it looking to complete a 2-0 victory.
There’s every chance they will, but the Bangladeshis will take heart from a performance that showed the quality and confidence that their young side often possesses. The task now is to turn that promise into victories.
Wins aren’t a problem for England right now though, how they’ll hope that continues throughout the summer and beyond.
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