Australia vs Bangladesh - Fatullah

It was unbelievably touch and go! The expected three day walloping of Bangladesh by Australia in the first test, played at Fatullah, Dhaka, was drawn out into the second session of day five as Bangladesh came within a whisper of victory. Winning the toss and smacking up 427 I think even surprised the Bangladeshi's who batted with precision. Young Nafees hit a near match winning 138 in what was one of the finest centuries I've seen across the world. If Bangladesh improved on their first innings, it was rolling Australia for a shocking 269, a score only reached because of 144 by Adam Gilchrist. Bangladesh's 2nd inning has been their achilles heel in their short test history, and proved again as they were dismissed for just 148, leaving Australia 307 to win in more than 5 sessions of play. At 1/173 it appeared Australia were going to cruise with concentration to victory, but Bangladesh fought hard and routed Australia to 7/277 early on day 5. Ricky Ponting was dropped on 98, which would have left Australia 8/286 at lunch but Ricky went on to score 118 and, with Jason Gillespie, take Australia home with 3 wickets to spare. A fantastic Test match! Bangladesh will take so much from this, and Australia won't be quite so sleepy come the second test in Chittagong!

Luke Gillian 14/04/2006 07:11:10