Raqibul and Shakib Inspire First Overseas Series Win By White Washing West Indies

Raqibul and Shakib inspire first overseas series win

July 20, 2009

Bangladesh 232 (Rahim 48, Raqibul 44, Roach 6-48) and 217 for 6 (Shakib 96, Raqibul 65, Sammy 5-55) beat West Indies 237 and 209 (Bernard 69, Shakib 5-70) by four wickets

	Darren Sammy threatened to run through the Bangladesh line-up, picking up three wickets and taking a splendid catch

History was calling and Bangladesh showed they were all ears in Grenada. Raqibul Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan shared a thrilling 106-run partnership to charge Bangladesh to their first overseas series win. On an enthralling afternoon's play, Darren Sammy threatened to do the improbable but Raqibul lifted Bangladesh with a plucky innings before the equally aggressive Shakib joined him to clinch a euphoric win.

Set a target of 215, a counterattacking Raqibul, who had walked in at 29 for 2, was joined by Shakib at 67 for 4 and the pair batted bravely to seize back the initiative. Though Sammy took out Raqibul and Mushfiqur Rahim, 14 runs away from the win, Shakib held his nerve to steer the team home. The winning moment came at 5.38 pm and in some style, with Shakib lifting Kemar Roach over long-on.

Though Raqibul fell 42 runs short of the target, it was he who had set up the win with an inspired performance. He had never hit a Test fifty before and he had struggled in the first Test due to his penchant of playing away from the body. However, he had held his own in the first innings here and added a dash of bravado today to lift Bangladesh from a hole. It was a gem of a cameo under the circumstances. Every time, West Indies picked up a wicket and threatened to charge ahead, Raqibul counterattacked to keep the hosts on their toes. He chose to take the adventurous route and didn't waste a single run-scoring opportunity; in fact he created a few chances of his own.

It was risky at times but someone had to seize the initiative back from West Indies and Raqibul decided to shoulder that burden. Apart from Sammy's superb spell, Raqibul's battle against Kemar Roach was the highlight of the session. Roach v Raqibul was the turning point in the first innings as Roach successfully probed a weakness in Raqibul against the bouncers before proceeding to scythe through the rest of the line-up. He was in no mood to buckle down today.

He started with a fierce slash over point and remained audacious against anything that was pitched up to him. It was a tantalizing battle as Roach troubled him a bit with short-pitched deliveries and a couple of jaffas that left the bat late but Raqibul released the pressure with a couple of impish square drives. He flicked Sammy and guided him through to third man boundary and thus, preventing West Indies from deploying close-in fielders. And when Ryan Austin, the offspinner, was brought for the over before tea, Raqibul dispatched him over deep midwicket and in the last session, he unfurled a couple of peachy off drives to further calm the dressing-room nerves.

Thankfully, for Bangladesh, Raqibul found a willing partner in his captain Shakib, who too oozed intent through his knock. He started off a touch shakily with a stab past second slip, an airy drive past mid-off, and an edge past gully but soon settled down to blunt the attack. Now and then, he teased the slip cordon with his slashes but just when it appeared he was living on the edge, he would unfurl a meaty off drive, defend solidly or steal a single to frustrate the attack.

Shakib took on the dominating role in the final session, spanking boundaries almost at will, including a hat-trick of fours against Roach. The first one, an extra-cover drive that brought up his fifty, was followed by a crunching cut and a feisty pull as Bangladesh galloped towards victory. If the final session was almost serene, the second was a dramatic and event-filled. The day had started with a two-hour rain delay and Bangladesh took just 4.1 overs to wrap up West Indies for 209; it was the first time Bangladesh had bowled out the opposition for less than 250 in both innings.

Till Raqibul and Shakib took the bowling on, it was Sammy who stole the show. Every one knows that Sammy is not going to blow the opposition away; his is a gentle art. He builds pressure with cluster of seaming deliveries in the corridor outside off and gently nudges the batsmen into making a mistake. Bangladesh initially stumbled into making fatal mistakes under the pressure of the chase and perhaps, under the strain of making history.

Sammy struck in his very first over, inducing Tamim Iqbal into edging a delivery leaving him before turning his attention to Junaid Siddique. After bowling 14 deliveries - most of them in the off-stump channel - for just one run, he got the next one to curve away from the middle and off line and Siddique tried to flick it rather injudiciously across the line but edged it low to first slip where Floyd Reifer took a sharp catch. Sammy then produced a gem to take out Mohammad Ashraful, who has gifted his wicket previously in the series but was unlucky to get a very good delivery that shaped away from him very late.

Sammy was supported well by Roach, who has been the chief tormentor of Bangladesh in the series so far. Roach, who surprisingly didn't take the new ball, was introduced in the second session and immediately looked menacing with his cocktail of bouncers and full deliveries outside off stump. He followed a lifting delivery with the one angling away to coax Imrul Keyes into edging to slip where Sammy took a brilliant catch, leaping at second slip. For a brief while, when Roach and Sammy operated in tandem, the game appeared to be hanging in balance but Shakib and Raqibul ensured their fans won't lose too much hair or nails.

Flintoff ends England's 75-year wait

England v Australia, 2nd npower Test, Lord's, 5th day

Flintoff ends England's 75-year wait

July 20, 2009

England 425 and 311 for 6 dec (Prior 61, Collingwood 54) beat Australia 215 and 406 (Clarke 136, Haddin 80, Johnson 63, Flintoff 5-92, Swann 4-87) by 115 runs

	Andrew Flintoff strikes a pose after dismissing Brad Haddin on his way to a five-wicket haul on his final Test appearance at Lord's

In his last Test at the home of cricket, Andrew Flintoff broke England's 75-year Lord's curse with his first five-wicket haul since the Ashes-clinching Oval Test of 2005. It was, unquestionably, a performance that will enhance his already mythical status within English cricket, but more pertinently for now, delivered England to a 1-0 series lead heading into Edgbaston.

Victory was sealed 17 minutes before lunch when Graeme Swann, another major contributor on Monday, pegged back Mitchell Johnson's middle stump with the Australian total at 406. The wicket prompted scenes of jubilation not witnessed at Lord's in decades, and a collective furrowing of brows in the Australian dressing rooms as the series momentum shifted sharply in the hosts' favour.

Flintoff, who bowled unchanged for ten overs from the Pavilion End to claim three of the five Australian wickets to fall on Monday, broke first from England's celebratory huddle to shake the hands of the vanquished Johnson and his batting partner, Ben Hilfenhaus. It was a scene that mirrored the final act of the corresponding Test four years ago, and went far to reviving the spirit of cricket that had been battered at several stages in the match.

Having spent the better part of Sunday evening chasing leather to all corners of Thomas Lord's playing field, England could scarcely have began the final day's play more positively. James Anderson's first delivery of the morning cannoned into Michael Clarke's thigh and prompted a raucous lbw appeal from both bowler and slips cordon, which was turned down by Billy Doctrove. Two more unsuccessful appeals reverberated around the grandstands before the first over was out, as Anderson probed pads and off-stumps with pace, precision and just a hint of movement away from the right-handers.

Andrew Flintoff displayed similar menace steaming in from his favoured Pavilion End, as 25,000 screaming voices drowned out the pain of a knee that, after four years of numbing injections, now resembles a pin cushion. Only a famous exit from Lord's would do for Super Fred, and England's allrounder duly obliged with the wicket of Brad Haddin from his fourth ball of the day.

Haddin was seldom ruffled on Sunday, mixing punchy strokes forward of the wicket with deft glides behind, but a new ball and an inspired Flintoff would prove an irresistible combination. Fast and full, Flintoff coaxed Haddin into an edge that flew to Paul Collingwood at second slip, terminating his innings for an impressive 80 but placing Australia in precisely the position they had hoped to avoid. Flintoff, the victor, did not so much celebrate the dismissal as assume Nelson's Trafalgar Square pose. A candidate, if ever there was one, for the fourth plinth.

	Michael Clarke was bowled by Graeme Swann for a magnificent 136

Johnson's early exchanges inspired little confidence that he would be the man to steer Australia to an improbably victory. Johnson half-ducked, half-stabbed at his first delivery from Flintoff and, as with his bowling, looked a shadow of the figure who compiled unbeaten innings of 96 and 123 against the South Africans four months prior. Edges off the bowling of Flintoff and Stuart Broad fell inches in front of the slips, and Johnson may well have found pavilion-bound had Flintoff not overstepped before wrapping him on the pads with a straight full-toss that struck in line.

Clarke, save for the odd Flintoff bouncer, was a picture of poise in the first half-hour of play, leaving judiciously outside his off-stump and driving with sublime placement and timing. The fluency of his batting contrasted greatly with the nervous Johnson, although the latter eventually found something resembling a groove as the hour progressed.

As the first drinks break loomed, Clarke might have entertained notions of bettering his previous highest Test score, famously struck on his Test debut five years ago, however a change of bowling prompted a change in his fortunes. Swann had spent much of the previous evening bowling a faster, flatter line, but found success with a slower, looping delivery that dropped under the bat of the advancing Clarke and spun just enough into the off-stump. Devastated, Clarke did not lift his head, nor raise his bat, despite a generous reception on his journey back to the Pavilion.

The loss of their sole centurion while still 165 runs in arrears of England appeared the death knell for Australia's aspirations of a world-record run chase. And when Nathan Hauritz was bowled shouldering arms to Flintoff the next over, an England victory was all but assured.

Johnson, by now, had found his batting form and blazed his way to a quick-fire half-century. But it would be in vain. Flintoff claimed his third career five-wicket haul by bowling Peter Siddle, and Swann rounded off the innings, and the match, by scything through Johnson's defences.