Sports After Dark

Staring down the barrel of a massive first innings deficit, Bangladesh fought back, first through their bowlers, then their batsmen to leave the first test finely balanced at the end of the second day. For New Zealand, Matthew Bell and Jacob Oram both made centuries but the Black Caps were unable to capitalise on the pressure they built up on the first day.

Fourteen wickets fell on the first day, despite excellent batting conditions, but the second day belonged to the batsmen as first Bell and Oram, then Tamim and Siddique showed that the University Oval pitch in Dunedin held little to fear.

Starting the day at 156/4, New Zealand looked to be in a commanding position, already 19 runs ahead. Their dominance continued during the morning session as Bell bring up his century before he and Brendan McCullum fell to Bangladeshi captain Mohammad Ashraful.

Oram brought up his fourth test ton two balls after lunch and the Black Caps looked to be cruising at 320/6 when Bangladesh took the new ball. It produced immediate results as Mashrafe Mortaza dismissed Oram and Kyle Mills with consecutive deliveries in the first over with the new ball.

The New Zealand tail wagged a little, captain Daniel Vettori making 32, but when he spooned a simple catch to mid-on the writing was on the wall and the Black Caps innings ended shortly after for 357, a lead of 220. Vettori would likely have been disappointed in his batsmen, as most fell to poor shot selection, which left his side unable to make the most of their earlier dominance.

If Vettori was disappointed in the batsmen, the bowlers let his side down even further, allowing the Bangladeshi openers off the hook with some wayward bowling and ill-advised tactics. Tamim and Siddique, both making their test debuts, struggled to cope with some early short pitched bowling, but as the short pitching bowling continued both adjusted and florished in the conditions.

Recorded tumbled in the afternoon session as Tamim and Siddique both passed 67, the previous highest score by a Bangladeshi against New Zealand set by Ashraful. With the score at 134 the pair also set a record for the highest opening partnership against all countries.

Ending the day on 148/0, a deficit of just 74, Bangladesh will take a great deal of confidence into day three on a flattening track while the Black Caps will be facing a long day of toil in the field on day three. Barring a spectacular collapse, this will be the first test match in which Bangladesh have forced New Zealand to bat twice.

While the first day of this test match clearly belonged to New Zealand, the spirited fight back from Bangladesh, particularly their two teenaged openers, has them back on level pegging, somewhere they have not been on this tour, until now.

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The Tamim and Siddique lead Bangladesh fight back in first test by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.