The Bangladesh National Cricket Team toured England for the first time in 2005. Coming into the tour, Bangladesh had clinched their first ever test series win against Zimbabwe, but were still last in the ICC Test Championship table. England, under Michael Vaughan's captaincy, had moved to second in the Test points table.
Bangladesh started their tour with warm-up games against the British Universities, Sussex and Northamptonshire. They then played two test matches against England both resulting in an innings defeat, with neither of the games reaching lunch on the third day. The tour then moved on to one-day matches. Warm-up games for one day internationals were played against Derbyshire and Worcestershire before Bangladesh took on England and Australia in the tri-nations NatWest Series, where they pulled off a stunning victory over the world champions Australia.
Tour matches The tour started with a comfortable draw against British Universities at Fenner's, before stuttering to a disastrous innings defeat against Sussex, and resulting in a draw in a rainy match against Northamptonshire. After the Sussex Test, the Bangladeshi team played England. Despite commentators saying England were not at their best, England won by an innings and 261 runs. The second Test was won by an innings and 27 runs, resulting in a 2–0 series victory for England as they continued into the one-day international tri-series with Australia.
British Universities v Bangladesh British Universities drew with Bangladesh
Bangladesh started their tour of England with an easy warm-up game against British Universities. Bangladesh batted first at a chilly Fenner's, but with an unbeaten century from Javed Omar they finished the rain-affected first day on a comfortable 238 for 3, after being reduced to 99 for 3. The second day was also a successful one for the tourists. Omar finished on 167 and Mohammad Ashraful scored 102 as Bangladesh finished on 381. In reply, British Universities stuttered to 82 for 5, before Luke Parker and Josh Knappett steadied the ship, leaving the students on 190 for 5 at close, with a draw the most likely result on the third day.
The students finished their innings on 238 on the final day, and the Bangladeshis opted for batting practice, finishing on 246 for 4 declared. Overall, a pleasing first game for Bangladesh. (Cricinfo scorecard)
Sussex v Bangladesh Sussex beat the Bangladeshis by an innings and 226 runs
Sussex recorded a big victory at Hove, smacking the Bangladeshi bowlers at will before bowling them out twice for a pittance, which didn't exactly give the Bangladeshis any confidence a week before the first Test at Lord's. Michael Yardy was the star of the match, notching up 35 fours and two sixes in a towering 257 – the highest score of the English first class season so far – which led Sussex to 549 for 7 declared. In reply, Habibul Bashar got hit by a bouncer from Jason Lewry when on 22 not out, and thus had to retire, and things only went downhill from there. The Bangladeshis could only manage a total of 323 runs from two innings (127 and 196), with 16-year-old wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim the only one who passed forty runs with a two-hour 63 in the second innings, before being stumped off a delivery by the Man of the Match, Yardy – who recorded his first career five-wicket haul, taking five for 83. (Cricinfo scorecard)
Northamptonshire v Bangladeshis Northamptonshire drew with the Bangladeshis
On the first day at Northampton, Northamptonshire made 149 for 5 against the touring Bangladeshis. The tourists' bowlers lured the county batsmen into playing odd strokes to loose balls, but not Bilal Shafayat, who made 76 before mistiming one off left-arm spinner Enamul Haque. However, it was Anwar Hossain Monir who did the most damage, taking 3 for 67. The second day was wiped out by rain, which resulted in the third day becoming somewhat pointless – Anwar added the wicket of Matthew Friedlander to his tally as he finished with four for 113, while the Bangladeshis lost wickets quickly in their reply, crumbling to 105 for 5. However, 16-year-old prodigy Mushfiqur Rahim continued his good run of form, scoring 115 not out with 15 fours and a six to lift the Bangladeshis to 309 for 7 in their glorified nets session. (Cricinfo scorecard)
Test series 1st Test
Michael Vaughan won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat at 10.30 am on the first day at Lord's. The first ten overs of bowling by Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard were lacklustre, as neither mastered the early-morning swing and they bowled a wide line. A stronger side would have scored more runs in this period, but Bangladesh made only 31 before losing their first wicket. The Bangladesh captain, Habibul Bashar, then came and went with a suicidal hoick when he was on three. The rest of the team succumbed quickly, often to bad balls as they failed to adjust to the English conditions. The English mixed the odd good length ball with the short and wide stuff, inducing edges through to the slips at regular intervals – although, admittedly, the Bangladeshis would never have been out if they'd tried to play a bit more defensively.
Javed Omar was the pick of the batsmen, scoring 22 before being caught by Marcus Trescothick off the most accurate of the English bowlers, Simon Jones. With six batsmen out in single figures, only Aftab Ahmed looked in control, before he also edged Andrew Flintoff to slip. In the end, Bangladesh made just 108 in 38.2 overs, despite being boosted by 12 English no-balls – eight from Hoggard, four from Harmison. Few batsmen even displayed the standard practice of getting behind a swinging ball and playing with a straight bat, preferring instead to stay still and nudge at the ball.
Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss then batted to tea with composure, taking the boundaries off Test debutant Shahadat Hossain in particular, and the pair made 70 runs before tea – meaning that England were only 38 off with ten wickets in hand after two sessions. An hour after tea, England brought up the lead, with Strauss having notched his fifty despite looking slightly shaky against Anwar Hossain Monir's bowling, and then being dropped on 51. Trescothick then made his fifty with a four off Mohammad Rafique. The opening partnership eventually was worth 148, as Strauss was nearly lbw on 69 with an inswinging ball on one ball and then finally lbw on the next, Mashrafe Mortaza getting rewards for his patient bowling.
England, however, continued to paste the bowlers, although skipper Michael Vaughan was lucky on more than one occasion – the most notable when he was dropped by Mohammad Rafique off Rafique's own bowling. By stumps, however, the pair had added 40, and they continued on a sunny second day – less rusty, however, than they had been on the first day. It was all too embarrassing for Bangladesh, as Vaughan raced to 120 before being caught behind off Mashrafe. Four overs later, the patient Rafique finally got his reward, Khaled Mashud coming up with a magnificent catch to get Trescothick out six short of a double century. That was as good as it got for Bangladesh, though, as Ian Bell, Warwickshire's prodigy, made 65 not out, and Graham Thorpe ran runs everywhere to score 42 not out with only two boundaries, before Vaughan decided that enough was enough and declared with seven wickets in hand and a lead of 420 runs.
Bangladesh's reply was a sorry one. Yet again, they failed to play the short ball well enough, and lost five wickets – Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff the main culprits, taking two each – for a miserable 65 before Khalid Mashud and Aftab Ahmed took some responsibility and guided them to stumps with 95 for 5. It was not to last, though. Only six balls into the third day, Hoggard bowled a good off-cutter to Aftab Ahmed, who failed to play it properly and was hit on the pads – out for a fine 32, Bangladesh's highest score in the Test series so far.
Steve Harmison then bowled the next over from the Pavilion End, removing spinner Rafique for a duck on his second ball of the over as he was caught behind and then having Mortaza bowled as Mortaza missed the ball only to have it graze his pad and roll behind him to hit his leg stump. Bangladesh had lost three wickets for two runs in the space of nine balls, and Harmison nearly added another wicket to his tally as he hit Anwar Hossain Monir on the pad in front. However, umpire Hariharan wasn't convinced it was going to hit the stumps, and Harmison was denied the hat-trick.
The end looked to be even more abrupt than people could think, before the third day had started. However, a no-ball-aided recovery and some fine batting from wicket-keeper Khaled Mashud, who surpassed Aftab Ahmed's score, sent the match into a slow-death period. Anwar Hossain and Khaled Mashud did, however, manage to put on 58 together for the ninth wicket, Bangladesh's best partnership of the match. Simon Jones eventually broke through the defences, though, as Anwar Hossain Monir got a standard thick edge to first slip Trescothick, and thus the ninth wicket fell – 156 for 9. An over later, Khaled Mashud was finally out, giving an awkward edge off Andrew Flintoff's bowling to Graham Thorpe at short leg and ending the innings on 159 all out – giving England an innings and 261 run win just before noon, half an hour before lunch, on the third day. Gareth Batty – England's spin-bowler, who came in to replace the injured Ashley Giles – was only mentioned on the official scorecard once, as he did not bat, did not bowl, and did not hold a catch. Trescothick was named man of the match for his 194. (Cricinfo scorecard)
2nd Test
Michael Vaughan won the toss again, just like in the first Test, and put Bangladesh into bat. A thoroughly professional bowling performance from the England bowlers followed, with Harmison, playing at his home ground, making the most of the conditions to take 5 wickets as the clearly outclassed Bangladeshis succumbed for 104. Only Javed Omar and Khaled Mashud made it into double figures. In reply, England quickly overcame the deficit for the loss of just Andrew Strauss, the only English batter who averaged less than 80 in this Test series. By close on the first day England were 269 for 3, with pundits reckoning the game would not reach the third day.
On the second day, Ian Bell became the first Englishman to score 100 before lunch in a Test match for 70 years, the last one being Les Ames, as both Bell and Thorpe hit out ahead of the predicted lunchtime declaration, which happened with England on 447 for 3. What followed was what the series had been crying out for earlier: a spirited Bangladeshi performance with proper cricketing shots. Whilst some Bangladeshis did get out to wild shots, the senior players got behind the ball, selected which ball to play, and made the most of the aggressive field placings chosen by England to make partnerships and build innings.
First out was Nafees Iqbal, caught behind for 15 with the score on 50. Iqbal was unlucky, as the video replays suggested the ball had bounced before going into Geraint Jones's gloves, but despite returning to the pitch to appeal to the umpires, Iqbal had to go. Opener Javed Omar, captain Habibul Bashar and Aftab Ahmed all made half-centuries as it was touch and go as to whether England would wrap it up in the two days. When the seventh wicket fell at 245 in the last over of normal play, it allowed England to claim the extra half-hour. But only one more wicket fell as Bangladesh restored some pride. England wrapped up the game within 20 minutes on the third day, but Bangladesh, albeit against an attacking field had made 316, 27 short of making the hosts bat again.