McBrine and the time machine

Dave Sihra (Dave Meets Ball - Substack)

On Day Two Ireland's spinners did well to get through Bangladesh with Andy McBrine achieving another test match six-for at Mirpur but things quickly turned on their head in the evening session.

Ireland 98 for 5 (Stirling 27, Balbirnie 21, Murad 2-10) trail Bangladesh 476 (Litton 128, Mushfiqur 106, McBrine 6-109) by 378 runs

Well we nearly had the moment in the first over. Not Mushfiqur Rahim finally moving to his hundred in his hundredth test - his wicket. Matthew Humphreys was almost the villian. He’d play a very good one with the mustache, the hairband etc.

There was a very excitable LBW shout that had Humphreys sprinting to cover, really legging it full airplane, doing the Stuart Broad celebrappeal all while looking back to the umpire. Now usually the Lisburn spinner is a good judge. He doesn’t just go up for anything.

However, perhaps the moment overtook Humphreys and he was more willing the wicket into existence. There was too much bounce, an inside edge, and captain Andrew Balbirnie remained unmoved. No review taken.

There was an even better delivery next ball. It curved beautifully and turned Mushfiqur square who missed it but the violent rip past the bat meant it missed the off stump too and Lorcan Tucker’s gloves. Imagine sending back the senior Bangladeshi batter to the shed for 99 in his 100th test in front of this crowd. This was theatre.

Ireland’s spinners toiled to eventually have Bangladesh dismissed for 476 with Andy McBrine’s taking another six-for at this ground to make us all feel like it’s 2023 again. His 6-109 in this match is even an improvement on his 6-118 last time around with a slightly better economy (3.28 compared to 4.2).

Gavin Hoey notably got his first test wicket when he had Mehidy Hasan caught at point, and then soon had his second when he castled Taijul Islam. The leg-spinner, who only turned to the art during Covid, has done well in this test after putting in the hard yards for Emerging Ireland and Ireland Wolves.

The doom

Ireland finished Day Two on 98-5 in the dying Mirpur light after a familiar story of Bangladeshi spinners getting well on top in an evening session.

With quite a bit of scoreboard pressure, the home side bowlers first managed to ramp up the intensity after sending back Paul Stirling who was confidently going about his business. One soon became two and you know the rest.

The key moment is of course the Stirling dismissal. Both him and Balbirnie were smartly counter attacking and looking well set. But you can’t overstate how difficult it can be coming out in conditions like these. When you’ve a start you need to make it count and grind down the opposition.

Stirling will say he took a calculated risk that just didn’t pay off. But post-series, Ireland may rue the starts and the fifties they’ve got to without converting these to bigger scores. But all of this is easier said than done when you’ve deliveries turning and others going straight on.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. However before the captivating India Australia test series in 2017 when Australia almost breached fortress India, one of the major talking points for the tourists was never getting beaten on your inside edge. Opener Matt Renshaw then took this into his prep by netting against spin with no front pad so that he’d never get beaten on that side or come out very sore.

Cade Carmichael playing only his second test must be scratching his head when facing all of these left arm spinners. He plays with four for the Northern Knights so avoids them at inter-pro level and then suddenly they’re everywhere. You’ve got Taijul, Marad, Monimul - does Mushfiqur maybe want to have a go at some left arm spin later in the test?

Ireland of course are coming into this two-series having not played in the format since February. They’re also not part of the current World Test Championship and have tried to prepare as best they can. The next test will most likely be a very different assignment.

The visitors though have a big fight on their hands in Mirpur to salvage something from this test match.

Andy McBrine almost put us in a time machine traveling back to 2023 with his six-for, perhaps Lorcan Tucker can do something similar to match the century he scored here on test debut almost two and half years ago.

This article was originally published on Dave Sihra’s Substack: Dave Meets Ball