As I hoped from my previous post, Bangladesh opted to bat first and put some runs on the board in order to attempt to give their team of spinners something to bowl at. They are now well past 300, and the pitch is showing signs of turn and bounce, albeit of the slow variety.
Graeme Swann, following his meteoric rise to No. 2 in the ICC rankings (perhaps a bit premature, but he has had a huge impact in Test cricket over the last 15 months), was England’s main wicket taker, and he has an outside chance at his third consecutive five wicket haul.
Bangladesh showed promising signs of increased confidence and consistency with a number of batsmen making starts, and some grittiness shown in the lower order. England will have to bat very well to build a sizeable lead on this pitch, and hopefully an interesting contest will ensue.
In a related note, my tickets to the return fixture at Lords in May arrived today, so now all I need to do is work out what wine to bring, and pray for decent weather!