Bangladesh set the record straight - Part 2 of The Greatest Test Match comebacks after extended losing streaks

Bangladesh v England, 2016 - Bangladesh win by 108 runs

Historical context: Bangladesh claim a first win against England and a first win against an established Test team in their history

No honeymoon for the Tigers

Until Afghanistan and Ireland were granted full Test status last year, the newest members of cricket's elite club were Bangladesh. Despite being a cricket-mad nation, the team from the Bay of Bengal had only previously recorded Test Match wins against 2 other relative minnows in the form of the West Indies and Zimbabwe in their 94 matches prior to their encounter with England. Worse yet, their record up until that point against England was played 8, lost 8.

There had been moments throughout those 16 years when the Bangladesh side had come close to breaking their barren run against the big 7 in Test Match cricket. For example, their match against Pakistan in 2003 where they lost by just 1 wicket or a series against Australia in 2006 where they pushed one of the best teams of their generation very close. However, despite engineering these promising positions Bangladesh had lacked that cutting edge and winning mentality that was needed to get them over the line.

Despite their relatively poor record, Bangladesh have always been able to rely on great home support

Familiar failings

Bangladesh's inability to close out a match was further illustrated by their performance in the first Test. With a quality spin bowling attack on home pitches that turned from ball 1, Bangladesh had more than just a passing chance of winning the game. They had England in trouble at 21-3 and then 106-5 in the 1st innings before allowing them to recover to 293. Similarly, in their own 1st innings they reached 163-3 before collapsing to 248 all out. England were allowed off the canvas again in their 2nd innings from 62-5 to make 240 and set Bangladesh an unlikely 285 for victory. Despite a great effort in the chase, Bangladesh came up 22 runs short and it felt like another case of so close and yet so far for this talented but psychologically flawed group.

Joe Root consoles Sabbir Rahman after he nearly guides Bangladesh to victory in the 1st Test

16 years of hurt, never stopped them dreaming

Bangladesh were in trouble again in the 1st innings of the 2nd match after they lost 9 wickets for a paltry 49 runs to be bowled out for 220. On a pitch that was already turning a considerable amount, England's long batting line-up managed to scrape them a valuable lead of 24 runs. However, the Bangladesh top order came out fighting in the 2nd innings, with 4 of the top 5 all making contributions to help set England a target of 272 to win the match and take the series 2-0.

England appeared to be cruising towards victory after a century stand between Ben Duckett and Alastair Cook took them to an even hundred at tea on Day 3. However, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha got stuck into his players during the interval, telling them that the chance to beat one of international crickets big boys may never come again for this group. Vice-captain Tamim Iqbal who had scored important runs for Bangladesh during the series was inspired by the words of his coach and took to the field like a man possessed. You could see and hear him on TV waving his arms, barking orders and generally trying to inspire his team to get back into this contest. Whatever he said did the trick, and with 19-year-old spinner Mehedi Hasan and quality Shakib Al Hasan along for the ride too, the Bengal Tigers roared back into life, taking all 10 England wickets in less than an hour and a half to deliver them their first major Test scalp in their 16 years at the top table.

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Bangladesh recover from a nightmare 2nd session to take 10 wickets for 63 in the final session

For this young Bangladesh team, being able to overturn a 200-year deficit in regards the overall development of the game of cricket between the 2 countries was a major achievement. As far as the individual match itself was concerned, the grit and will to win shown by the Bangladeshi team in the final session was incredible and they fully deserved their comeback victory. Too often the side had let their emotions affect their play but this was the perfect balance of intensity, discipline and skill.