Bangladesh v England second Test: Tourists humiliated by 108 runs after losing TEN wickets in a session
England suffered a horrible collapse to slump to a shocking 108-run defeat against Bangladesh in the second Test in Dhaka.
Set 273 to win, the visitors were perfectly poised at tea on 100/0 but suffered an astonishing batting failure to end up bowled out for 164.
Playing in his second Test, 19-year-old Mehedi Hasan took his third five-wicket haul in four innings against England and Shakib Al-Hasan took three wickets in four balls as Bangladesh recorded the most famous victory in their history.
All this came after Ben Duckett and Alastair Cook had raised real hopes England could pull off a famous victory of their own.
England started the day needing quick wickets to restrict the target but they were architects of their own downfall. Three half chances were grassed in the first hour before Imrul Kayes was finally dismissed for 78.
The woes were set to continue soon after, with Ben Duckett putting down a simple chance at deep mid-wicket as Shakib Al-Hasan continued a charmed life. Zafar Ansari the unfortunate bowlers on four separate occasions.
As the lead went over 200, Bangladesh started throwing caution to the wind and eventually Al-Hasan was to go chopping onto his own stumps in Adil Rashid’s first over.
Mushfiqur Rahim went cheaply before England wasted their second review of the morning. Their moods were not improved by the fact that on the two occasions they should have reviewed they opted not to.
The morning session ended in a bad-tempered fashion with the umpires angrily remonstrating with Cook and Joe Root as Ben Stokes exchanged a war of words with the Bangladeshi batsmen.
England were cheered with a wicket from the final ball of the session as Rashid nipped out Sabbir Rahman LBW for 15.
Rashid and Stokes then combined well to take the last three wickets and Bangladesh had been bowled 296.
The target was 273 and well in excess of anything England had successfully chased in Asia.
England began in positive fashion most notably through Duckett who adopted controlled aggression rather than grim survival.
He took the fight back to the hosts and in good time had reached 50 for the first time in Test matches.
He was grateful to see two tough chances dropped but that should not take away from a fine hand played by the youngster.
At the other end, Cook was playing in his normal way and at tea England had taken exactly 100 runs off the target.
A fascinating Test match took another turn with Duckett bowled for the first ball after tea by the equally-impressive Mehedi Hasan. It was to set in motion an incredible collapse.
Root went LBW for one the next over as the Tigers roared their way back into the match.
Cook survived a reprieve for LBW but could not make it count as he was fifth out for 59. Before that Gary Ballance and Moeen Ali went cheaply.
So often in the recent past England’s middle order had come to their aid but there was no chance of that happening as first Jonny Bairstow went for three before Shakib Al-Hasan ended any hopes whatsoever of an unlikely win for England by taking three wickets in four balls.
Fittingly though, it was Hasan who claimed the final wicket to spark incredible scenes of celebration by the players and the fans inside the stadium.
They will look to the future with hope, England will travel to India with trepidation.