The openers Nafis Iqbal and Javed Omar looked very nervous as they walked out onto the pitch today, getting there even before the umpires were out. After a nice, steady partnership from the two batsmen, Stephen Harmison made the breakthrough on 31-0. It was a shorter ball which Iqbal struggled to contend with and edged it to Tresco who had an easy catch to take. 3 runs later captain Habibul Bashar was out off the bowling of Hoggard, caught behind. Aftab Ahmed started very well, striking 5 quick boundaries off just 14 balls. His luck run out though soon after and edged it to Strauss off Flintoff. Javed Omar then went off Simon Jones on the same amount of runs, caught at slip. The miserable time on their debut at Lords continued for the Bangladeshis, who lost vital batsmen Ashraful cheaply when he was on six runs, trapped lbw. England made light work in dismissing the rest of the batsmen, with Harmison dismissing Mashud soon after lunch. When the tail was exposed, they batted miserable and poorly, and were heavily outplayed. Harmison and Hoggard were constantly hitting the seam. There were some particularly poor shots by Mortaza. Poor footwork was a key and a general bad technique by the Bangladeshis. The England innings started fruitfully and the openers were off to a flyer going at seven an over. Shahadat Hossain bowled abysmally and had very embarassing bowling figures. When the bowlers finally reduced the run rate and satarted getting their line right, the batsmen were already well settled and nearing half-centuries. They both scored 10 lovely boundaries, delighting the crowd. The century partnership arrived and it looked like a long evening session for Bangladesh. They continued to toil. Bangladesh finally made the breakthrough they so desperately needed, when Mortaza bowled a good inswinger trapping Staruss lbw. Vaughan joined Tresco at the crease and stayed there, despite a couple of scares and a dropped chance by Rafique.

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