NZ v BAN, 1st Test Day 4 Review: New Zealand score big, Draw a likely result

After fighting out hard on the 3rd day of the opening Test against Bangladesh, hosts New Zealand again had a solid 4th day’s play and rode on a beautiful 177 from opener Tom Latham to end their 1st innings at 539 after Bangladesh had declared their 1st innings at the score of 595/7. Youngster Kamrul Islam Rabbi was the pick of the visiting bowlers with 3 wickets to his name.

Coming into bat in the 2nd essay, Bangladesh ended the day’s play at 63/2, with an overall lead of 119 runs. Mominul Haque and night watchman Mehedi Hasan were the two unbeaten batsmen. It might be an interesting final day’s play at the Basin Reserve but the likely result is still a draw and both the teams need to do something out of the ordinary to force a result in this Test.

The day began with New Zealand comfortably placed at 292/3. Overnight batsmen Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls carried on from where they left on the previous day and looked to get as close to the Bangladesh total. Latham began with a fluent boundary of the bowling of Taskin Ahmed and Henry Nicholls too looked in good touch. The duo added 142 runs stand for the 5th wicket before Nicholls was dismissed by former captain and double centurion in the match, SHakib-AL-Hasan. It was not a great delivery but Nicholls played it of the face of the bat to the leg slip fielder.

Colin de Grandhomme stuck a four and a six before he was dismissed in the 98th over of the bowling of Subhashish Roy. It took the inside edge of the bat and was safely pouched by stand-in wicket-keeper Imrul Kayes. Wicket keeper BJ Watling joined Latham in the middle but just when Latham was approaching his elusive double century mark he was dismissed by Shakib in the 111th over of the innings. It was a straighter delivery which came with the arm and struck him plumb in front. There was no hesitation from the umpire in raising the finger.

Mitchell Santer joined Watling in the middle and the duo batted superbly to share a 73 runs stand for the 8th wicket. While Santner employed the aggressive approach, Watling was playing the 2nd fiddle. Santer played some delightful drives and cut and pulled to perfection. He even stepped out and struck Shakib for a couple of monstrous sixes and added another to Mehedi Hasan. With both of them going strong, Watling was dismissed against the run of play by Mahmudullah but that was not enough to curb down Santner who was going great guns.

Tim Southee and Neil Wagner went back to the pavilion in quick succession but Santer played some lusty blows towards the end of the innings to propel the hosts to 539. He shared a 35 runs stand with Trent Boult for the last wicket. While Kamrul Islam Rabbi was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with 3 wickets to his name, Shakib, Mahmudullah and Subhasish Roy all chipped in with a couple of wickets each.

Bangaldesh began pretty well with openers Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes looking in great flow. Both the southpaws struck some delightful strokes but just as the partnership went past the 50 mark Tamim was dismissed by Mitchell Santner with a peach of a delivery. The ball spun sharply and took the middle stump. Meanwhile his partner Imrul Kayes too went off the field after sustaining an injury.

Mahmudullah too was dismissed before the end of the day’s play to leave the visitors at 66/3, with an overall lead of 122 runs. The match is in all likelihood is expected to end in a draw but anything can happen on the final day.

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