Grind them down

On Day Three in Sylhet, Matthew Humphreys shone with five wickets as Ireland battled on but Bangladesh still managed to declare with an imposing lead and later closed in on victory. By Dave Sihra

Matthew Humphreys took five wickets: Pic by BCB/Cricket Ireland

Grind them down is exactly what Bangladesh did on Day Three; batting 141 overs to put miles in the legs of Ireland’s bowlers and fielders with a second test match in Mirpur just around the corner. It’s a tale as old as time.

The home side could have batted further with Hasan Mahmud and Nahid Rana at the crease plus Taijul Islam still waiting, but they wanted to bowl at the visitors in the evening session while morale would be down. Plus there’s the hope they could finish the test a day early to give their bowlers some extra rest.

Maybe I like the misery?

If Day One showed us test cricket’s ebbs, flows, emotions (see Jordan Neill getting out) then today was maybe a truer picture of what the format really is: misery, pain, struggle, battling on when things are well and truly against you.

Day Three of this match is perhaps what you show an alien to give a sense of how the format works. How you win. How you struggle and fight. How you grind down opponents. How tough it really is out there.

It’s a position Bangladeshi fans will have seen a plenty in the 2000s as the team struggled to find their feet having become a full member. It’s a position England fans will have seen on Indian tours, Australian tours, West Indies tours, you name it.

Irish fans have already seen enough days like this. Galle 2023, Lords 2023. Now our men’s side have an admirable three test match wins in the bank from our first ten. But it still hits the same.

Key moments

First ball from Taijul Islam and Paul Stirling comes down the wicket, second ball he comes down again and goes aerial despite the ball not being quite there to do so. Third he stays. Taijul then goes quicker, and a bit shorter in the rest of the over which allows Stirling to casually throw in his trademark flay/cut/flash shot outside off for a boundary.

Second ball of the eighteenth over, Stirling tries the same again by going down the wicket. This time however the ball is just outside off. It rips. Stirling closes the face and misses the ball entirely. The Bangladeshi wicket keeper also misses it. Shanto takes the ball from slip and flicks it in a flash to send back Stirling.
It was a stunning piece of work when Stirling and Tector just looked to be getting settled. From there more wickets fell, every ball looked more explosive, the fielders seemed to close in and the home fans increased in volume as dusk drifted in overhead.

Where are we at? 86-5, trailing by 215 with two full days remaining. Truly up against it. McBrine and Humphreys remain at the crease and there’s still the possibility of injured captain Andrew Balbirnie to come out to bat.

Another tough day of test cricket. We go again tomorrow.