Hoggard's impressive spell revives England

England 253 Bangladesh President XI 46-6

Matthew Hoggard lifted England's spirits after an embarrassing batting collapse by marking his return to the international fold with a superb new-ball bowling spell in his side's opening tour match here yesterday.

The Yorkshire seam bowler has been missing from England's line-up since the first Test against Zimbabwe at Lord's in May, after which he picked a knee injury and spent most of the summer recovering from surgery. However, he announced his return in spectacular fashion yesterday by taking three wickets in a six-over spell to improve the tourists' morale after they had slumped to 253 all out against opponents made up of mainly Under-19 players.

Hoggard struck in his third over to remove the openers Hannan Sarkar and Nafees Iqbal to slip catches and then returned to dismiss Ashiqur Rahman. Kent's Martin Saggers, playing his first senior match for England, claimed two victims as the President's line-up slumped to 46 for 6.

The duo's late successes gave England a boost after the collapse - their last eight wickets falling for 72 runs in the first of only two warm-up matches before the first Test at the National Stadium on 21 October.

England began the second day hoping all their leading batsmen could spend time at the crease but instead suffered a disastrous second session. Resuming on 106 for 1, England reached 191 for 2 at lunch with the opener Marcus Trescothick on 90. However, the left-hander was out to the first ball after the interval prompting the loss of four wickets - Graham Thorpe (0), Nasser Hussain (17) and Rikki Clarke (0) were the others - in 17 balls without a run being added. The 18-year-old left-arm spinner Enamul Haque junior took two wickets in five balls.

The lower order fought back with the wicketkeeper Chris Read and Gareth Batty forging a 55-run seventh-wicket stand, but the last three wickets fell after tea for nine runs. Read was out for 43 when he was adjudged lbw to Anwar Hossain Monir's seam bowling. Steve Harmison fell in identical fashion in the same over and the innings was completed by the impressive spinner Enamul, who tempted Hoggard to edge to slip.

DHAKA SCOREBOARD

BCB President XI won the toss

ENGLAND - First Innings
M E Trescothick c Aftab Ahmed b Enamul Haque jnr 90
M P Vaughan c Anwar Hossain b Anwar Hossain Monir 36
M A Butcher c Moniruzzaman b Gazi Alamgir 21
N Hussain lbw b Gazi Alamgir 17
G P Thorpe c Anwar Hossain b Enamul Haque jnr 0
R Clarke c Aftab Ahmed b Enamul Haque jnr 0
C M W Read lbw b Anwar Hossain Monir 43
G J Batty b Nadif Chowdhury 17
A F Giles not out 9
S J Harmison lbw b Anwar Hossain Monir 0
M J Hoggard lbw b Enamul Haque jnr 0
Extras (b1 lb3 w7 nb9) 20
Total (100.1 overs) 253

Fall: 1-77, 2-127, 3-181, 4-181, 5-181, 6-181, 7-236, 8-252, 9-252.

Did not bat: M J Saggers.

Bowling: Anwar Hossain Monir 23-6-58-3; Gazi Alamgir 16-5-37-2; Mushfiqur Rahman 20-7-35-0; Enamul Haque jnr 27.1-8-58-4; Abul Bashar 3-0-11-0; Nadif Chowdhury 9-2-45-1; Ashiqur Rahman 2-0-5-0.

BCB PRESIDENT XI - First Innings
Hannan Sarkar c Butcher b Hoggard 7
Nafees Iqbal c Thorpe b Hoggard 0
Aftab Ahmed lbw b Saggers 10
Ashiqur Rahman c Trescothick b Hoggard 0
Mushfiqur Rahman not out 6
Abul Bashar b Saggers 0
Anwar Hossain c Thorpe b Harmison 6
Nadif Chowdhury not out 5
Extras (b4 lb4 nb4) 12
Total (for 6, 24 overs) 46

Fall: 1-13, 2-14, 3-19, 4-29, 5-29, 6-37.

To bat: Moniruzzaman, Enamul Haque jnr, Anwar Hossain Monir, Gazi Alamgir.

Bowling: Hoggard 6-3-11-3; Harmison 8-3-12-1; Saggers 6-2-6-2; Clarke 3-0-5-0; Giles 1-0-4-0.

Umpires: Nadir Shah and Ziaul Islam.