Trescothick gets thumbs up

David Lloyd|Evening Standard|In Chittagong

13 April 2012

Latest score: Bangladesh 93-4 (CLOSE)
England 326 all out

England breathed a sigh of relief here today after learning that Marcus Trescothick had not broken his thumb.

Opener Trescothick - their star batsman so far this winter - clutched his left hand in agony after dropping a difficult low slip catch off Matthew Hoggard's bowling as Bangladesh tried to find a way back into the second Test. The missed chance, offered by Mushfiqur Rahman, was the least of England's worries.

Trescothick headed straight for the dressing room and then went for an X-ray amid fears he had fractured the thumb and might miss not only the rest of this trip but also the follow-on tour of Sri Lanka. Instead, the examination showed only strained ligaments which should not sideline the Somerset player for too long.

"This is probably the best result I could have hoped for because I was very worried to begin with," said Trescothick. "It was very sore and I have broken it before."

Trescothick will try to hold a bat in the morning. Most probably, though, he will sit out the rest of the Test and may even miss the three- match one- day series against Bangladesh which starts next week. Crucially, though, he should be fit before England move on to Sri Lanka in mid-November.

Trescothick has been in brilliant form of late, scoring a double century in the defeat of South Africa at The Oval in September and making 113 and 60 already against Bangladesh. If the news tonight had been bad, however, the Somerset batsman would have struggled to play again this year.

When Trescothick broke his left thumb during the summer of 2002 he was out of action for six weeks and missed three Tests against India. Bangladesh, meanwhile, have reached 93 for four in reply to England's 326 all out.

Michael Vaughan's men made a real meal of putting a reasonable total on the board, having resumed this morning on 237 for four. They took charge again, though, with Rikki Clarke striking twice either side of a wicket apiece for Richard Johnson and Hoggard.

Clarke, however, had fallen way short of the century he wanted. Even so, he still took another step towards becoming the dynamic all-rounder England have in mind.

A fit again Andrew Flintoff will want his Test place back in Sri Lanka. But it may not be too long before both all-rounders can be accommodated in the same side - as they are in Vaughan's one-day team - and Clarke has reinforced that view here.

The 22-year-old had added only a couple of runs to yesterday's impressive contribution of 53 when he snicked a back-foot forcing shot against Mashrafe Mortaza. Given the ball as first change today, though, he produced a lively and intelligent spell that netted figures of 7-4-7-2.

Hannan Sarkar, moving right across his stumps, fell lbw. Then, with his next delivery, Clarke had Alok Kapali easily held by Mark Butcher in the gulley off a nasty lifting delivery.

By then, Johnson had removed Javed Omar with a swinging delivery which was spooned to mid-off and Hoggard had dismissed Habibul Bashar with the help of Butcher's excellent take at third slip.

England's plan has been plain enough with the bat: to get as many as possible and then try to bowl out the opposition twice to win this series 2-0. Their tactics during the first half of today took caution to extreme lengths, however, and ultimately backfired on them as they lost five wickets for 13 runs in 13 overs.

Nasser Hussain typified the slowcoach approach, toiling nearly six hours in all for 76 runs.

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