New Zealand spinners dent Bangladesh on Day 1
New Zealand’s plan of beating Bangladesh at their own game at home – has started off well, even as Bangladesh got to 310 runs on Day 1 in Sylhet. Glenn Phillips turned up to be the hero for the visitors as he picked four wickets, while Ish Sodhi and Ajaz Patel accounted for three more, as Bangladesh lost nine wickets on the opening day. Bangladesh ended up on the right side of the toss and as expected decided to pile on the runs. Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Zakir Hasan even saw off 10 overs of fast bowling before the latter became the first of the seven casualties to spin bowling. Ajaz Patel slipped a quicker one through that beat Zakir’s attempt to cut and hit the off-stump. Najmul Hossain Shanto arrived with the intention of throwing New Zealand’s spinners off their rhythm as he took on Ajaz. However, Bangladesh’s woes began right at the end of the opening session when Shanto miscued an innocuous full-toss from Phillips while giving him the charge, and hit to Kane Williamson at mid-on. Mahmudul and Mominul Haque led Bangladesh’s recovery, even as they survived a couple of nicks that flew between the New Zealand slip cordon. The pair batted out majority of the second session, establishing a solid base for Bangladesh to construct a big innings on, with a stand worth 88 runs but once again, Phillips put a spanner in the works with the wicket of Mominul. He too, like Shanto against Ajaz, went for a cut on a ball that wasn’t there for that shot and ended up nicking it to Tom Blundell behind the stumps. Soon after, Ish Sodhi got the well-set Mahmudul to nick one behind towards Daryl Mitchell at slip, who did extremely well to get his hands under the ball while diving to his right. Bangladesh went to Tea at 184 for 4, and then spiralled even further in the post-Tea session as the ball started to turn a lot more as the day went on. To their credit, all of the lower-order batters for Bangladesh got starts but none could carry on till stumps to give Bangladesh the early upper hand in the fixture. Mushfiqur Rahim and Shahadat Hossain dragged Bangladesh past the 200-run mark but once again Phillips broke through with the former’s wicket. Mushfiqur gave Phillips the charge and went big, but mistimed it to Williamson at mid-on. Mehidy Hasan Miraz looked solid for his 20 until a bout of indecision led to him edging one from Kyle Jamieson to Daryl Mitchell at slips. Bangladesh then lost wickets for every 20-odd runs they added as they went from 233 for 6 to 290 for 9. New Zealand’s hopes of wrapping up the innings on Day 1 didn’t come through though as Taijul Islam and Shoriful Islam batted out 3.1 overs and hit four boundaries in them to take the team past 300. Bad light then intervened, bringing a slightly early end to the day’s proceedings with 85 overs bowled. New Zealand will head back with the joy of having spun a web around Bangladesh’s batting order, but with the surface getting better for spinners, their real progress in the fixture will depend on how well they bat. Brief Scores:
Bangladesh 310/9 (Mahmudul Hasan Joy 86, Najmul Hossain Shanto 37, Mominul Haque 37; Glenn Phillips 4-53, Ajaz Patel 2-76) vs New Zealand
