5 best Test matches of the season
“No yaar, Test cricket is so boring. Who has time to watch for five days.”
Every cricket fan has heard this said to him or her at least once by friends (presumably now ex-friends), family or even other cricket fans. Recently, while watching the India-Pakistan Champions Trophy game, a friend told me, in passing, that Test cricket was ‘boring’. That damn word, again.
“Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me,” I had always thought. But this was an arrow to the heart. Clenching my fists, I challenged myself to find Test cricket’s greatest hits in recent times (May 2016 to May 2017), refusing to rest till I had cleansed myself with a healthy dose of good old fashioned gritty Test cricket.
Therefore, here are five best Test matches of this season.
#5 England vs Bangladesh at Chittagong, 20-24 October 2016
Closeness of result: 5/5
Balance between bat and ball: 4/5
Context: 4/5
Standard of Play: 3/5
Aggression: 5/5
The first match of a two-match series saw the hosts fall agonisingly short of their first Test win against a team other than Zimbabwe or the West Indies. The game was played on an absolute ripper of a wicket in Chittagong.
Th crowd saw 19-year-old debutant Mehedi Hasan rip the heart out an England batting line-up that seemed to forget how to play spin.
Eventually, debutant Sabbir Rahman led the chase of 286 runs on the 4th day and was unbeaten overnight with Bangladesh 33 runs from a historic win. A strong exhibition of reverse swing on the final morning saw a packed Chittagong stadium left dejected, their team just 22 runs short of upsetting England.
The game was one of the most tantalising games of Test cricket in recent times for a variety of reasons. Things had gotten heated between the two teams during the ODI series, where players had been fined for their conduct on the field, leading to heightened tensions.
Bangladesh’s performance against England signified the rise of Bangla Tigers in the longest form of the sport, 17 years after their introduction to the format. The game was close from start to finish and wickets fell at regular intervals throughout the game, making it impossible to keep oneself away from the television screen throughout the five days.
The match showcased both the teams’ young talent through the revelation that is Mehedi Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, who almost won Bangladesh the game and the coming of age of Ben Stokes, whose maturity with the bat and excellence with the ball was a precursor to his breakthrough 2017 season.