England put under Pressure and Australia beat New Zealand

The second test match between Bangladesh and England has finally shown us that Bangladesh can play good test match cricket and compete against some of the top teams in the world at this format of the game. It was nice to see them get big runs in the first innings, although that wasn't helped by the fact that England allowed their tail to keep piling on the runs.

After a good innings Bangladesh walked away with a very competitive 419 and things were going well for them when England collapsed to 174-4 before Ian Bell proved that he can score runs when the team needs them the most as he compiled a composed 138 and with good knocks from both Matt Prior and Tim Bresnan ensured that England finished on 496 all out.

Without a doubt England are now back on top but it will be a good test of Bangladesh to see if they can get a draw here and bat ou the last 4 sessions without allowing England a chance at a small total then it will show the progress that they are making and even though it won't be a win it will still be a good test match performance.

On the bowling front it's been a poor tour for Steven Finn but it must be said that neither of the test match pitches have been condusive for his type of bowling, however the other bowlers have made a good go of it with Stuart Broad and James Tredwell bowling well. The two outstanding bowlers have been quite easily Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan and between the 2 of them they will be hoping to give England at least a chance of snatching victory in the rest of this test.

Elsewhere there was the first test match between Australia and New Zealand and after a Michael Clarke hundred in the first innings the Australians posted 459-5 and after a good bowling performance saw New Zealand bowled out for just 157 there was surely only ever one winner in this match.

The follow on was enforced and it was only thanks to Brendon McCullums 104 and good innings from Vettori and McIntosh that New Zealand posted 407 leaving australia need just over 100 to win the match. 23 overs later and the match was over with the score of Australias last innings standing at 106-0 with opener Hughes making 86 off 75 balls to ensure an easy win in the test match.

Elsewhere the IPL is now in full swing and it is the batsmen that are dominating it at the moment with good knocks coming from the old pros such as Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds and in particular from the master Sachin Tendulkar. It has also been good to see Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan getting good scores for their teams as well.