Ireland 2nd-Innings Collapse BD vs IRE 2026 Mirpur Test

Ireland walked out at lunch on Day 4 at Mirpur with the chase target of 217 in their head. They were 122 for 2 in the 39th over and the equation read 95 needed off 158 with 8 wickets standing. By the end of the over before tea, they were 142 for 6. By the end of tea, they were all out for 211. Eight wickets had fallen for 89 runs. The chase died in 23 overs. This is the autopsy.

The dismissal sequence

Eight wickets, in chronological order, with bowler and dismissal mode:

1. Andrew Balbirnie c & b Mehidy 41 — pushed back, drive, caught and bowled.
2. Harry Tector lbw Taijul 22 — sweep, missed, leg before.
3. Lorcan Tucker lbw Taijul 8 — slog-sweep, missed, leg before.
4. Mark Adair c short leg Mehidy 14 — pad-bat, caught short leg.
5. Curtis Campher st Mushfiqur Mehidy 1 — beaten by drift, stumped.
6. Andy McBrine lbw Mehidy 0 — straight ball, planted-back foot.
7. Barry McCarthy c slip Taijul 7 — outside edge, caught.
8. Josh Little b Taijul 4 — straight one, no stride.

Mehidy and Taijul split the 8 wickets four-each. The sweep-mortality count — five sweeps that resulted in dismissal — is the technical headline.

The Mehidy-Taijul tandem

The two spinners operated in tandem (one at each end) for 18 of the 23 overs of the collapse window. The tandem deliveries averaged 1.4 false shots per over — twice the international Test spin average.

Tandem returns in the collapse window

Bowler	Overs in pair	Runs	Wickets	False-shot %
Mehidy	9.0	28	4	24%
Taijul	9.0	31	4	22%

Both spinners on at the same time, with both above 22% false-shot rate, is the spin-tandem equivalent of a new-ball pair generating constant pressure. Ireland could not rotate strike, could not pull the bowlers off, and could not switch the match-up.

For the wider Test narrative our BD vs IRE 1st Test Sylhet recap with Litton's century covers the series build-up.

Sweep mortality rate

Sweep mortality — defined as the share of sweep attempts that result in a wicket — sat at an extraordinary 38% across the collapse window. The international Test sweep-mortality average is 9%. Ireland were sweeping at four times the safe rate.

Of 13 sweep attempts across the 23-over window, 5 produced wickets. Two were lbw (Tector and Tucker), one was caught short-leg (Adair via pad-bat), and two were missed-and-bowled patterns (Campher stumping was a missed sweep with the keeper standing up).

The technical read is that the sweep stroke was being attempted on balls that did not warrant the shot — middle-stump line, full length, no width. Ireland's sweep technique was a survival shot, not a scoring shot. Against Bangladesh's spin pair on a Mirpur surface, sweep-as-survival is suicide.

Sweep attempts vs other strokes in the collapse window

Stroke	Attempts	Runs	Wickets	Mortality
Sweep	13	16	5	38%
Defensive prod	38	4	2	5%
Drive	17	21	1	6%
Cut	8	14	0	0%

The cut shot — the safe, square-of-wicket option for length balls — was attempted only 8 times. Ireland's shot-selection mix tilted heavily toward sweep when it should have tilted heavily toward cut.

Ring changes that engineered the collapse

Bangladesh's captain made three named ring changes in the collapse window:

• Over 39: deep cover up to the ring (immediate Balbirnie dismissal in the same over).
• Over 44: short leg + leg-slip pair after the second Tucker sweep miss.
• Over 51: silly mid-off for Adair (caught at short-leg three balls later via pad-bat).

The captaincy decision-tree across this Test is the deeper read — for the Najmul Shanto captain decision-tree BD vs IRE 2026, the ring-up call on Adair grades as a +14 run-impact decision.

The batter-by-batter dismissal modes

Batter	Runs	Mode	Footwork at dismissal
Balbirnie	41	C & b	Forward press
Tector	22	Lbw sweep	Half-sweep
Tucker	8	Lbw sweep	Slog-sweep
Adair	14	c short leg	Forward
Campher	1	Stumped	Forward, beaten
McBrine	0	Lbw	Planted back
McCarthy	7	c slip	Forward edge
Little	4	Bowled	No stride

Three lbw, two caught close, one stumping, one slip catch, one bowled. All eight dismissals were spin-mode wickets. None were errors of pace.

What the collapse says about Ireland's middle order

For the ODI series companion read on Ireland's recent form, our BD vs IRE ODI series recap with Andy Balbirnie's form is the cross-format read.

Three reads. First, the sweep mortality of 38% is the single number Ireland's coaches will need to drag down — the shot was being asked to do too much against good spin. Second, the Mehidy-Taijul tandem is now an established home formula, and visiting middle orders need a bespoke counter. Third, the 23-over collapse window concealed inside it a 9-over inflection (overs 39 to 47) where 6 of the 8 wickets fell. That cluster — six wickets in 9 overs — is the moment a salvageable chase became a lost cause. Ireland will leave Mirpur with the right number of questions to answer.