Home ›› 07 Apr 2023 ›› Sport
On Wednesday, Bangladesh needed 6.3 overs to pick up four Irish wickets and put the balance of the one-off Test in their favour by the time the second day ended.
On Thursday, to pick up the exact same number of wickets, the Tigers toiled for 90 overs. And that amount of work ended up being ineffective as Ireland sized up a 131-run lead to once again put the tie in some balance.
Ireland ended day three on 286-8, courtesy of Lorcan Tucker’s maiden ton and Andy McBrine’s unbeaten 71.
Taijul Islam added two more wickets to his name to take his count in this innings to four but otherwise, it was an uninspiring performance from the Bangladesh bowlers.
Bangladesh, today, would want to wrap the Irish batting up quickly because if not, they might be staring at a target close to 200, which might prove tricky on a pitch that is likely to show some wear and tear on the final two days.
While it was possibly a substandard outing for the Bangladesh bowlers, the game is still pretty much in Bangladesh’s hands if they can skittle Ireland out early on day four, something their fast-bowling coach Allan Donald emphasised on.
“Tomorrow (Today) morning’s a big morning. I mean, they are 130 runs ahead now if I’m correct. So, tomorrow we got to go bang bang quickly and get batting,” he said.
The South African was unwilling to blame his bowlers, and rather praised the Ireland effort.
“When one team gets it right on the day and they knuckle down at 2.8 runs an over all day long and show grit and determination, this is the sort of thing that can’t happen.
“I’m not disappointed (with the bowling). One thing I will say is that I thought at some stage after lunch, we could have set a field where we could just maybe shut off one side of the ground a little bit more. But I can’t fault the hard work that these guys did today. Let me tell you, that’s one of the flattest wickets I’ve seen,” Donald said in a press conference on Thursday.
Tucker, Ireland’s first overseas centurion, said they were looking at scoring a lead of around 180.
“The wicket is playing well. It will break up a little bit more. Maybe something magical happens overnight. We know we can take wickets to win the game tomorrow. We hope to give Bangladesh a real target to chase. We think all the pressure is on them. We will be pretty happy with anything up near 170-180. Another 40-50 runs,” he said.
Bangladesh started the day off not too shabbily as they got Peter Moor (16) early. However, from there, the rest of the day was a drag for them.
Harry Tector (56) picked up his second fifty of the match and Tucker went on to pick up his maiden ton in red-ball cricket. And when Tucker’s dismissal gave them hope, McBrine, following his six wickets with the ball, came up good with the bat to frustrate the Tigers even more.
The pace trio that Bangladesh fielded – Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, and Khaled Ahmed – have largely been ordinary in this innings despite the first two picking up a wicket each. Their lines and lengths throughout the innings have been questionable, resulting in their failure of creating a genuine threat for the Irish batters, something that did not help the Tigers’ cause.
Donald pointed to the wicket regarding the pacers’ performance.
“There’s not a lot of life for the quicks in here, especially halfway down. And we’ve seen a couple of balls not carry to the keeper. Hey, but that’s Test cricket. No one said Test cricket’s going to be easy,” he said.
