Cricket news: Brilliant Bashir helps England claim a dominant victory
England dominated Zimbabwe in the one-off Test match at Trent Bridge, as they continue to prepare for the Test series against India.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Dejan Johal gives us a review of this game, as well as looking at key contributions throughout it.
Day one review
England began their international summer with a comprehensive and dominant win over Zimbabwe, after bowling them out twice inside five sessions.
Zimbabwe’s captain Craig Ervine won the toss and elected to field first due to the overcast conditions in Nottingham.
However, England’s openers, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, were hardly phased by the conditions as they dominated with the bat.
Duckett dominated on his home ground to score his fifth century in the red ball format, ultimately falling for a wonderful 140 off 134 deliveries.
Crawley continued along with England’s number three Ollie Pope, as they both also scored wonderful centuries to close out the first day as England finished on 498 for three.
Pope finished the first day on 169 not out, whereas Crawley provided an excellent response to bad form with 124 off 171 deliveries.
The first day also included a historical moment for English cricket, as Joe Root became the fastest player to reach 13,000 runs in Test history.
Day two review
Pope fell early on day two scoring 171, but England continued to play aggressively, ultimately declaring on 565 for 6.
After a totally dominant display of batting, it was then over to the bowlers to try and make light work of the Zimbabwe batting.
England struck early as debutant Sam Cook took his first Test wicket to dismiss Ben Curran in the fifth over.
The away side were always going to struggle to get anywhere close to England’s score, and they were ultimately bowled out for 265 with three wickets going to England spinner Shoaib Bashir.
However, it wasn’t all negative for them, as there was a great moment for opener Brian Bennett who scored a fabulous century.
Still trailing by 300, Ben Stokes decided to enforce the follow-on to try and claim another comfortable victory under his captaincy.
The hosts finished day two claiming two late wickets, as Zimbabwe still trailed by 270 runs.
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Day three review
The Three Lions were looking to take advantage of the overcast conditions on day three to claim victory.
Despite the conditions potentially favouring the fast bowlers, the headlines were taken by England’s spinner - as Shoaib Bashir dominated day three.
Zimbabwe showed resilience and determination as Sean Williams and Sikander Raza both scored fifties as they tried to keep the game alive for the away team.
However, Bashir stole the show on day three as he claimed six wickets in eighteen overs to help England bowl Zimbabwe out for 255 to win by an innings and 45 runs.
Bashir was named Player of the Match for nine wickets in the match, meanwhile, England’s top-order batters all enjoyed time over the first two days to score runs freely and aggressively.
After a thoroughly convincing victory in this one-off Test match, Ben Stokes and his team will have all the confidence for the upcoming five-Test match series against India.
With this dominant performance from his team, as well as being on home turf, surely England will be going into that series as favourites.
