Clarke fills all-round role after Hussain's grit revives England

Michael Atherton believes the most important innings he played for England were not his hundreds but the ugly, hard-fought 40's he eked out when he was totally out of form. This was because these scores kept his place in the side and gave him another opportunity to regain his touch.

Nasser Hussain's position in the England team is not under any sort of threat but his 349-minute grind during the first two days of the second Test was Athertonesque in its style. The former England captain's innings of 76 will not be one he remembers with fondness, nevertheless, while he was at the crease 180 of England's 326 runs were scored. Indeed, if Hussain had not shown such grit, Michael Vaughan would not have been able to be so aggressive with his fields while Bangladesh stuttered to 93 for4 in the afternoon.

When your sense of timing is as good as that of Ricky Gervais's character David Brent in The Office, the last thing you need is a slow outfield. However, the long grass at the M A Aziz Stadium and the inability of Hussain to locate the middle of his bat rendered him almost shotless at times.

To his enormous credit, though, Hussain did not let his shortcomings get him down in a situation when players with less pride and determination would have thrown their innings away. During the 266 balls the 35-year-old faced he tried everything to get himself going. On several occasions he came down the wicket to the seamers and on others he attempted to reverse sweep the spinners. The outcome was still the same: a dot in the scorebook.

Perversely, the true value of Hussain's innings only became apparent when he was out. England were in the middle of a mini-collapse that saw them lose four wickets for eight runs on his arrival at the crease. Then, once he was eventually out, England fell apart with the last three wickets adding only 13 more to the total.

Bangladesh's bowlers deserved their success. Their captain, Khaled Mahmud, set intelligent fields which elicited a response from each of the seven bowlers he used. The pick was Mashrafe Mortaza, a 20-year-old fast bowler from Khulna. During his 28 overs he troubled every England batsman and his effort merited more than 4 for 60, even if they were career-best figures.

Hussain was not the only England player to struggle. After Rikki Clarke edged a catch to slip in the fourth over of the day, Chris Read tried to be positive but even he found it difficult to give the innings any momentum. His dismissal for 37 and that of Hussain in the next over led to an all too familiar collapse.

After that pathetic effort with the bat, England's bowlers ran in as though they had a point to prove. It did not take long before Vaughan was patting them on the back rather than scowling in their general direction. Richard Johnson, playing in his first Test since he took 6 for 33 on his debut against Zimbabwe in June, claimed England's first wicket when Javed Omer chipped a simple catch to the captain at mid-off.

After the tea interval, Matthew Hoggard quickly got among the Bangladeshi batsmen when he forced Habibul Bashar to slice a loose drive to Mark Butcher at slip, but it was Clarke who put in the most impressive bowling spell of the day for the tourists.

The Surrey player's batting has already gained plenty of praise, even if the quality of his bowling is yet to become clear. Yesterday, however, in a seven-over spell in which he conceded only seven runs, the 22-year-old proved that he does have the potential to become an all-rounder of some stature when he took two important wickets - Hannan Sarkar and Alok Kapali - as Bangladesh were attempting to rebuild their innings. His victims came in consecutive deliveries but with the hat-trick ball he failed to make Mushfiqur Rahman play.

Mushfiqur and the diminutive Rajin Saleh, who was roughed up by England's fast-bowlers, survived to the close but not without incident. Twenty minutes before bad light stopped play, England were given a scare when Marcus Trescothick dropped a sharp chance at slip low to his left.

As soon as the ball struck him the Somerset opener grabbed his left hand and signalled to the dressing room that he was coming off. As Trescothick left the field everyone feared the worst. Fortunately, an X-ray revealed there to be no fracture but a sprain at the base of his left thumb.

"I was worried to begin with," Trescothick said. "That is why I came off very quickly. It was very sore and I knew I had broken it before. There is no fracture and that is the main thing. I don't think I will be out for too long but I can only gauge that when I pick up a bat tomorrow."

CHITTAGONG SCOREBOARD

Second day; Bangladesh won toss

ENGLAND - First Innings

(Overnight: 237 for 4; M E Trescothick 60, M P Vaughan 54)

N Hussain c Khaled Mashud

b Mashrafe Mortaza 76

344 min, 266 balls, 5 fours

R Clarke c Hannan Sarkar

b Mashrafe Mortaza 55

210 min, 144 balls, 8 fours

ÝC M W Read c Rajin Saleh

b Enamul Haque Jnr 37

117 min, 78 balls, 6 fours

A F Giles lbw b Mushfiqur Rahman 6

61 min, 41 balls

R L Johnson c Khaled Mashud

b Mushfiqur Rahman 6

30 min, 23 balls, 1 four

M J Saggers lbw Mohammad Rafique 1

18 min, 12 balls

M J Hoggard not out 0

5 min, 2 balls

Extras (b8, lb5, w7, nb5) 25

Total (559 min, 135.3 overs) 326

Fall (cont): 5-250 (Clarke), 6-313 (Read), 7-313 (Hussain), 8-321 (Johnson), 9-326 (Saggers), 10-326 (Giles).

Bowling: Mashrafe Mortaza 28-11-60-4 (nb3, w2) (6-3-10-0, 2-0-10-0, 4-0-10-2, 11-5-26-1, 5-3-4-1); Mushfiqur Rahman 18.3-6-50-2 (4-0-16-0, 2-0-12-0, 1-0-6-0, 2-1-4-0, 6-4-6-0, 3.3-1-6-2); Khaled Mahmud 23-8-46-1 (w5) (6-4-5-0, 5-1-12-1, 7-3-12-0, 5-0-17-0); Mohammad Rafique 37-15-63-2 (4-1-12-0, 3-2-3-0, 8-3-17-1, 11-5-11-0, 1-0-1-0, 5-2-12-0, 1-0-2-0, 4-2-5-1); Enamul Haque Jnr 23-4-81-1 (nb2) (7-0-41-0, 4-0-15-0, 3-0-10-0, 9-4-15-1); Alok Kapali 4-0-12-0, Rajin Saleh 2-1-1-0 (one spell each).

Progress: First day: 50: 77 min, 18.4 overs. Lunch: 88 for 0 (Trescothick 33, Vaughan 50) 30 overs. 100: 138 min, 35.3 overs. 150: 202 min, 49.5 overs. Tea: 188 for 4 (Hussain 21, Clarke 33) 62 overs. 200: 282 min, 73 overs. New ball taken after 83.2 overs at 222 for 4. Close 237 for 4 (Hussain 47, Clarke 53) 90 overs.

Second day: 250: 377 min, 93.3 overs. 300: 462 min, 113.2 overs. Lunch 311 for 5 (Hussain 76, Read 36) 119 overs. Innings closed 1.28pm.

Trescothick: 50: 143 min, 111 balls, 5 fours, 2 sixes.

Vaughan: 50: 119 min, 95 balls, 10 fours.

Hussain: 50: 215 min, 167 balls, 3 fours.

Clarke: 50: 153 min, 109 balls, 8 fours.

BANGLADESH - First Innings

Hannan Sarkar lbw b Clarke 28

99 min, 78 balls, 2 fours

Javed Omar c Vaughan b Johnson 2

13 min, 5 balls

Habibul Bashar c Butcher b Hoggard 18

38 min, 26 balls, 3 fours

Rajin Saleh not out 24

119 min, 87 balls

Alok Kapali c Butcher b Clarke 0

5 min, 1 ball

Mushfiqur Rahman not out 16

66 min, 36 balls, 2 fours

Extras (nb5) 5

Total (for 4, 172 min, 38 overs) 93

Fall: 1-6 (Javed Omar), 2-44 (Habibul Bashar), 3-61 (Hannan Sarkar), 4-63 (Alok Kapali).

To bat: ÝKhaled Mashud, *Khaled Mahmud, Mohammad Rafique, Mashrafe Mortaza, Enamul Haque Jnr.

Bowling: Hoggard 13-1-42-1 (nb4) (9-0-34-1, 4-1-8-0); Johnson 10-3-26-1 (7-2-22-1, 3-1-4-0); Clarke 7-4-7-2 (one spell); Saggers 6-1-16-0 (nb1) (5-1-13-0, 1-0-3-0), Giles 2-1-2-0 (one spell).

Progress: Second day: Tea: 25 for 1 (Hannan Sarkar 14, Habibul Bashar 7) 7 overs. 50: 61 min, 13.4 overs. Bad light stopped play 4.55pm.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and E A R de Silva (S Lanka).

TV replay umpire: Mahbubur Rahman.

Match referee: Wasim Raja.