Taking England into the final session of the final day is another of the small steps to respectability that Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, spoke of before the start of this match. But this was still a heavy defeat and a demoralising one of sorts, given the earlier fight his team had shown.
Ultimately, the Test-playing nation with only four bowling machines at their disposal had no answer to the team lacking for nothing.
England, with all their coaches, trainers, masseurs and money, with facilities and talent that puts the home team to shame, should beat Bangladesh and they did, although taking in the series as a whole, they made hard work of it. On this evidence England are a workmanlike team, at least in conditions that demand a little more than honest-to-goodness seam and finger spin.
Still, great credit to Alastair Cook, who returns the team to Andrew Strauss undamaged, undefeated and in good heart, although he should do so with the message that the next time the team set out on an unglamorous, physically demanding expedition, the captain might think about joining them.
Related LinksThe Edge: England need a bowling coach ... and fastTrescothick to follow Vaughans exampleMultimediaMIKE ATHERTON: where poverty makes defeat a gift MIKE ATHERTON QA: Cook still has much to learnThe ECB announced yesterday that Strausss first appearance of the season would be tomorrow at Harrow Saint Marys Cricket Club, launching the NatWest CricketForce. He should have been travelling home with his players instead.
Later, Andy Flower, the England team director, called the efforts of his stand-in captain outstanding, but in a funny way, Cook neither enhanced nor damaged his prospects of taking over from Strauss eventually. He scored a bucketload of runs, and stylishly, in the one-day internationals and the Test matches, and led the team diligently and responsibly, but he did not suggest that he has the kind of instinctive feel for the game that captains would ideally possess. He looks a manufactured leader the best are born, not made.
But he had an excellent day yesterday, taking a couple of hunch-like decisions that paid off and scoring a beautifully paced and undefeated hundred to push his team to victory. As Cook strolled gently to his twelfth Test hundred, along with Kevin Pietersen, who kept his captain company until the finish with a crisp and fluent 74 that confirmed he is back to somewhere near his überconfident best, it was clear that England had finally broken Bangladeshs spirit.
The only casualty in the run chase was Jonathan Trott, who was run out after responding to his captains call for a sharp single. If some of the umpiring earlier in the match had caused comment, this decision beggared belief because the replays showed that Trott had made his ground by the time the stumps had been broken. Trott has had an unfortunate tour, given out off his helmet in Chittagong, the ball unluckily dribbling on to his stumps in the first innings here and then hung on no evidence in the second. The third umpire responsible for making this howler was called, appropriately, Nadir Shah.
No one characterised Bangladeshs broken spirit in the afternoon more than Shakib Al Hasan, the 23-year-old captain. He plainly had nothing more to give in the final two sessions of the day, which was unsurprising because he had bowled 66 overs in Englands first innings and played a lone hand on the fifth morning with the bat. It was a heartbreaking moment when he fell stumped, last man out just after lunch.
As James Tredwell spun one past his charge, Al Hasan dived to make his ground, in vain, and lay briefly mired in sweat and dust: he will have reflected at that moment on the cruelty of the game, on the heavy burden that he carries as captain of the poorest team at the top level of international cricket and, perhaps, on the inexplicable strokes of two of his team-mates, Shafiul Islam and Naeem Islam, as they tried to stave off defeat.
Bangladesh had started the day positively 11 fours came in the first hour and, as the second new ball approached, England were starting to fret. A couple of catches had been put down off Al Hasan to take Englands total of muffs in the match to ten, although the one put down by Trott at deep mid-wicket was fiendishly hard, Matt Priors behind the stumps much easier.
With Stuart Broads radar missing, Cook gave Tredwell the second new ball an inspired move. Flighting the ball generously, he suckered both Islams into trying unsuccessfully to clear the ropes, although the dismissals were as much down to the batsmens naivety and panic as to any calculations on Englands part. Then, in another inspired move, Cook turned to Steven Finn, who trapped Abdur Razzak immediately, so that Bangladesh went to lunch nine wickets down and, to all intents and purposes, out.
Bangladesh: First Innings 419 (Tamim Iqbal 85, Mahmudullah 59, Naeem Islam 59, Shafiul Islam 53; G P Swann 4 for 114)
Second Innings (overnight 172-6)*Shakib Al Hasan st b Tredwell 96Shafiul Islam c Trott b Tredwell 28Naeem Islam c Pietersen b Tredwell 3Abdur Razzak lbw b Finn 8Rubel Hossain not out 0Extras (lb 3, w 5) 8Total (102 overs) 285Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-86, 3-110, 4-130, 5-156, 6-169, 7-232, 8-258, 9-275.Bowling: Broad 16-2-72-2; Bresnan 13-2-34-1; Tredwell 34-8-82-4; Finn 9-3-21-1; Swann 30-7-73-2.
England: First Innings 496 (I R Bell 138, T T Bresnan 91, I J L Trott 64, M J Prior 62; Shakib Al Hasan 4 for 124)
Second Innings*A N Cook not out 109I J L Trott run out 19K P Pietersen not out 74Extras (b 2, lb 4, nb 1) 7Total (1 wkt, 44 overs) 209Fall of wicket: 1-42.Bowling: Shafiul Islam 6-0-22-0; Razzak 15-0-67-0; Al Hasan 8-0-31-0; Mahmudullah 7-1-38-0; Hossain 4-0-26-0; Naeem Islam 4-0-19-0.Umpires: A L Hill (New Zealand) and R J Tucker (Australia).
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