New Zealand & Bangladesh play out a gripping drawn test series as WTC 23-25 cycle resumes

 

After the World cup is over it's back to the winter of test cricket and WTC 2023-25 cycle . 

We indeed had a gripping two test series between New Zealand and hosts Bangladesh.  After Bangladesh were off to an emphatic win over the Kiwis in the 1st test , it was expected that the Kiwis will be rolled over again in the 2nd test but New Zealand showed again that they are great in adapting to conditions and Bangladesh showed their fragility and also their inability to close out a series after being on top .  Below we go through the two test matches in brief 

2nd test 

New Zealand beat Bangladesh by four wickets in the second match of the two-Test series.  With this victory, the Kiwis  broke the dream of Bangladesh.  The hosts wanted to win the series for the first time against the Kiwis, but it was not to be.  Bangladesh have yet to win a Test series against New Zealand.  This is the third occasion that the two teams have drawn a Test series.  Earlier this happened in 2013 and 2022.  New Zealand have won seven series against Bangladesh.

 In the second Test of the series played in Dhaka, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat first.  They scored 172 runs for 10 wickets in the first innings.  Mushfiqur Rahim scored 35 runs and Shahadat Hussain scored 31 runs.  Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips took three wickets each for New Zealand.  Ajaz Patel got two wickets.  At the same time, New Zealand scored 180 runs in the first innings.  They got a lead of eight runs.

 

 Glenn Phillips was brilliant in the first innings. In the first innings, New Zealand lost five wickets for 46 runs.  Glenn Phillips took over from here.  He was joined by Darrell Mitchell, Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee to lead the team.  Phillips scored 87 runs off 72 balls.  He hit nine fours and four sixes in his innings.  Kyle Jamieson scored 20 runs and Tim Southee scored 14 runs.  Mehdi Hasan Miraj and Taijul Islam took three wickets each for Bangladesh.

 In the second innings, the Bangladesh team was bowled out for a paltry  144 runs.  Zakir Hasan scored 59 runs for them .  Apart from him, no player could negotiate the spinning pitch as Bangladesh was dismissed cheaply .  Najmul Hussain Shanto scored 15, Taijul Islam 14 not out and Mominul Haq 10.  Ajaz Patel took the highest six wickets for New Zealand.  Thus New Zealand got a target of 137 runs.  New Zealand won the match by scoring 139 runs for six wickets.  For that, Glenn Phillips scored an unbeaten 40 and Mitchell Santner scored an unbeaten 35.  Tom Latham scored 26, Daryl Mitchell 19 and Kane Williamson 11.  Mehdi Hasan Miraj took three wickets and Taijul Islam took two wickets.  In a way Bangladesh fell into their own trap of preparing rank turners as they found some New Zealand  batters as quality players of spin and also that the visitors have quality spinners in their ranks to negotiate any eventuality .

1st Test 

Meanwhile  Bangladesh team created history by defeating New Zealand by 150 runs in the first test.  Kiwis had got the target of 332 runs in the fourth innings.  In reply, New Zealand's innings was  ended at 181 runs.  This is only Bangladesh's second win over New Zealand in Tests.  Bangladesh has achieved both these victories over Kiwis in the last two years.

This was Bangladesh's first win in Test against New Zealand on its own soil.  Both the countries have been playing Tests since 2001 and Bangladesh has defeated New Zealand for the first time in 23 years.  At the same time, last year itself Bangladesh had registered its first win in Test history against New Zealand.  Then Bangladesh defeated the Kiwis by eight wickets in Mount Maunganui.

 Within the last two years, three Tests have been played between the two teams, out of which Bangladesh team has won two and New Zealand has won one.  At the same time, overall 18 tests have been played between the two countries.  Out of these, Bangladesh has won two and New Zealand has won 13 tests.  Three tests have been drawn.

 The special aspect about Bangladesh's victory was that the team came on the field with only one senior player.  Neither Shakib Al Hasan, nor Mahmudullah (retired from Test), nor Liton Das, nor Mustafizur Rahman were in this team.  This team, playing under the leadership of Nazmul Hussain Shanto, gave a crushing defeat to the much better and stronger New Zealand team.  Taijul Islam was the hero of the match for Bangladesh.  He took a total of 10 wickets including four in the first innings and six in the second innings and played an important role in the victory.  He was also chosen Player of the Match.

Talking about the Test match, Bangladesh won the toss and batted first and were all out for 310 runs in 85.1 overs.  Mahmudul Hasan Joy played an innings of 86 runs.  Captain Nazmul Hussain Shanto scored 37 runs and Mominul Haq scored 37 runs.  For New Zealand, Glenn Phillips took four wickets, while Kyle Jamieson and Ajaz Patel got two wickets each.  Captain Tim Southee and Ish Sodhi got one wicket each.

 In reply, New Zealand's first innings ended at 317 runs and they took a lead of seven runs over Bangladesh.  Williamson scored 104 runs with the help of 11 fours.  Whereas, Daryl Mitchell scored 41 runs and Phillips scored 42 runs.  Apart from this, Tom Latham scored 21 runs, Kyle Jamieson scored 23 runs and captain Tim Southee scored 35 runs.  For Bangladesh, Taijul Islam took four wickets and Mominul Haq took three wickets.  Whereas, Shoriful Islam, Mehdi Hasan Miraj and Naeem Hasan got one wicket each.

 Bangladesh scored 338 runs in its second innings.  Captain Nazmul Shanto played an excellent inning of 105 runs.  Whereas, Mominul Haq scored 40 runs, Mushfiqur Rahim scored 67 runs and Mehdi Hasan Miraj scored 50 runs.  Ajaz Patel took four wickets for New Zealand.  Whereas, Ish Sodhi got two wickets.  Southee and Phillips took one wicket each.  Bangladesh took a lead of 331 runs and set a target of 332 runs for the Kiwis.

 In reply, New Zealand's innings was reduced to 181 runs and Bangladesh won by 150 runs. Top batters failed -  Latham zero, Devon Conway 22 runs, Kane Williamson 11 runs, Henry Nicholls two runs. Daryl Mitchell played a good innings of 58 runs, Sodhi 22 runs and captain Southee scored 34 runs towards the end .  Taijul took six wickets for Bangladesh and broke the back of the Kiwis.  Naeem took two wickets.  Whereas, Shoriful and Miraj got one wicket each.