Hamilton: A hasty rewrite of the battle plan saw Neil Wagner bag a five-wicket haul as New Zealand ripped through the Bangladesh tail to counter Tamim Iqbal’s virtuoso century on day one of the first Test in Hamilton on Thursday.
Despite Tamim’s heroic 126, New Zealand claimed the first-day honours when they reached stumps at 86 without loss in reply to Bangladesh’s 234.
But for half the day everything had flowed Bangladesh’s way as Tamim led an assault on the New Zealand attack after being sent in to bat. The green wicket did not assist swing bowlers Tim Southee and Trent Boult and it took a switch to short-ball specialist Wagner to get results. Tamim, Bangladesh’s most prolific Test run-scorer of all time, laid the foundations for a potentially huge total when he laid into the bowling. He cracked 21 fours and a six as he feasted on fruitless New Zealand efforts, led by Southee and Boult, to find the edge of his bat.
But there was minimal support, and after Tamim had steered Bangladesh to 180 for four, his dismissal triggered a collapse where the last six wickets fell for 54 runs. Liton Das, the last man out, had the second highest score of 29. Tamim, who believed Bangladesh left themselves 150 runs short. New Zealand had an anxious moment at the start of their reply when Ebadat Hossain, on debut, saw his third ball in Test cricket fly from Tom Latham’s bat direct to second slip, but Soumya Sarkar spilled the straightforward chance.
One session later and Bangladesh went to tea at 187 for seven with Wagner’s figures improving to three for 29 while Southee was still being caned at one for 71. Colin de Grandhomme only took one wicket but it was the key dismissal of Tamim. (AFP)
