Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2022

36 eir rst tour in 2005 consisted of eight weeks of toil…. and one glorious day. It was inevitable that the young and inexperienced tourists would be no match for a decent England team, but life has to start somewhere when you are embarking on a new sporting adventure. e highlight was upsetting world champions, Australia, at Cardi at the start of the NatWest Series - their greatest ever result and arguably the biggest upset in the game’s history. eir 16 man squad, captained by Habibul Bashar and with an average age of only 23, was short on experience and had to learn on the hoof. As with all new touring sides the 1st Test was played at Lord’s, an unforgettable experience in itself for any team, let alone one new to Test cricket. England won by an innings and 261 days inside three days. Eight days later at Chester-le- Street England’s victory margin was an innings and 27 runs, again within three days. ey only needed the same ve players across the two Tests to score all of their runs for the loss of a mere six wickets, whilst the tourists lost all forty. Opener Marcus Trescothick helped himself to two big centuries for a series match total of 345. In addition, Ian Bell scored his maiden Test century in Durham in his third Test and nished the series without being dismissed. Only two three day county matches were played, against Sussex (loss) and Northants (draw). A crumb of comfort came in the second when Mush qur Rahim, aged 16 years and 261 days, became the youngest rst class cricketer in England to score a century. eir second tour in 2010 had much the same result, losing the 1st Test by eight wickets and the second, in Manchester, by an innings and 80 runs. Remarkably, in the latter xture, they twice lost all ten wickets in a session. But the Bangladeshis did have one exceptional cricketer who le his mark on the series. He was Tamim Iqbal and in his rst innings at Lord’s he scored 55. Upon returning to the pavilion it was drawn to his attention that anyone scoring a Test match century at the home of cricket had the fact recorded on an honours board. In the second innings and suitably red up he scored 103 at more than a run a ball. Wisden states that ‘ever the showman, he celebrated with a Houdini-like contortion as he pointed at his name, printed on the back of his shirt, instructing team-mates on the dressing-room balcony to put Playing at the home of cricket remains a dream for players the world over, including the emerging cricket nations. JOHN HOPKINS concludes his series about those occasions when they first achieved it.