CRICKET:JONATHAN TROTT'S first Test hundred helped England win the Ashes. If he survives long enough to add a second, it could stave off the threat of a Test defeat by Bangladesh. Ashes-winning debutant he might be, but nobody can claim he does not have an appetite for the dirty jobs.

Trott’s grim but invaluable resistance turned an embarrassing morning into a day of unremitting tedium, which was some sort of improvement. But on a weekend when the England and Wales Cricket Board predicted the financial collapse of the game if the Ashes return to free-to-air TV, it was a fair bet that nobody would bid even 100 Bangladeshi taka to show the highlights of this.

Bangladesh’s first innings of 419, their third-highest score in 10 years as a Test nation, was made on a docile pitch, but it is the worry that the Sher-e-Bangla surface will rapidly deteriorate that filled England with foreboding.

James Tredwell has talked not of cracks but platelets. As there were three small tremors in Dhaka overnight, it is to be hoped they do not become craters. Trott is designed for a rearguard action. He ended the second day 64 not out in as many overs. It took him nearly four hours to reach 50, by which time most of the small crowd were reduced to near-paralysis, examining sunburn, moles or inner selves.

England are the only international side never to lose to Bangladesh and Trott protected the honour. When he reached 50, the TV displayed a wagon wheel showing midwicket boundaries which had entered cricket statistics more easily than they had entered the memory.

He is playing as an emergency opener because England omitted Michael Carberry, and got off the mark to the 33rd ball he faced - one fewer than it had taken Tamim Iqbal to reach 50 on the first morning. Life was more entertaining then, but no more committed. Guardian Service