AS OMENS go, the first ball that Mohammad Ashraful faced was an indication that it would be his evening at Trent Bridge. And for all the records amassed by England’s batsmen, it will be Ashraful’s sparkling jewel of an innings that lingers in the memory.

The backward-defensive stroke that he played to Chris Tremlett’s hat-trick ball, which bounced on to the top of his leg bail without dislodging it, was just about the last defensive stroke he played. But then how else are you supposed to play when you are chasing 392 to win? To the first ball he faced from Stephen Harmison, he aimed an expansive drive back over the bowler’s head and missed by a mile. “Tut, tut, silly boy,” experts observed. Surely the man who had taken five for 33 against Australia two days earlier deserved more respect than that.

But Ashraful had enjoyed success against Australia, having hit a century in his team’s astonishing victory on Saturday, and, by the end of Harmison’s first over, those experts were not chastising so readily.

Ashraful had hit him for 18 (although 19 came from the over with a no-ball), including two stunning sixes. The first six was hooked, thrillingly; the second, three balls later, was a wristy flick on the front foot over wide mid-on, the timing of which defied belief. Harmison forced a smile at first, but his expression soon became more pained.

This is one of the tiny Bangladesh batsmen who were supposed to be terrified of pace bowling: our hero stands only 5ft 3in to Harmison’s 6ft 4in and Tremlett’s 6ft 7in. He was like a mouse scurrying around the feet of an increasingly irritated herd of elephants.

Whereas his team-mates had been discomfited by the extra bounce gained by England’s tall bowlers, the 20-year-old used it cleverly to his advantage. To reach his fifty from his 21st ball, he got underneath a length ball from Flintoff and hooked into the Fox Road stand. There have been only seven quicker half-centuries in one-day international history.

It was not merely an innings of random blows. There were superbly selective sweeps, deft deflections through fine leg and crisp cover drives.

“Ashraful: Our Little Master” read a banner held up by Bangladesh supporters and Paul Collingwood, the England all-rounder, agreed. “It was Tendulkar-like. Wherever he wanted to hit the ball, it went,” Collingwood said. Praise indeed.