Tigers Make History – Their First Ever Win Over England
It was midnight in Bangladesh, but not a soul was in bed - not those who love cricket; they were all up following a match which was plain heart-stopper in the finishing stage of the game. They were witnessing a match that swung again and again, first in favor of England, then Bangladesh for a brief moment half way through the game, and then back and forth.
A game is only a game until you became involved with it, and then you get entangled in the sheer drama, holding your own heart in your hands, so to speak; such was this game that anyone who followed it would remember for a very long time to come.
When a confident-looking England sent Bangladesh to bat after winning the toss, and restricted their opponents to 236 for 7, it became a mere regulation match for them. The speculations were about the number of overs that England was going to need to have their resounding victory over a team that was low in morale. There was no expectation for a Bangladesh victory, not even from their earnest fans.
England appeared to be breezing through till the 8th over when the Tiger’s Fast-bowling prodigy Rubel Hossain induced England Skipper AJ Strauss to play uppishly to the stand-in Kipper Jahurul Islam who made no mistake. And then Rubel repeated his feat in the very next over getting the other English opener out. From that point England started loosing wicket steadily, giving rise to hope in Bangladesh camp that this may be the day when they would break their losing streak.
When England was down 7 for 166 in the 40th over, the Tiger fans were gleaming with big smiles; the match was in their pocket, they thought! The fall of A Shahzad brought on the crease S C J Broad who once was a dependable bat for England but now a mere shadow of his past. Bangladesh was smelling victory.
Today Broad had other thoughts, with I J L Trott at the other end; he started hitting balls squarely and took the score to 209 in the 47th over. England needed 28 runs in three overs—hearts of all Tiger fans sunk again. The match was clearly in England’s favor.
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