New Zealand in command despite Tamim century

New Zealand in command despite Tamim century

HAMILTON, New Zealand: 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 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 180-4, 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.

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.

From there Latham and Jeet Raval knuckled down to bat unruffled through to stumps with Raval on 51, his eighth half-century, and Latham on 35.

In a productive morning session, Bangladesh went to lunch at 122-2 with Tamim contributing 86, including 15 fours, as he showed that despite the green hue the wicket held no dangers.

Wagner in that period took 1-13 off six overs, while Southee had none for 40 off six.

One session later and Bangladesh went to tea at 187-7 with Wagner’s figures improving to 3-29 while Southee was still being caned at 1-71.

The pair cleaned up the last three wickets immediately after tea with Southee, while expensive, taking 3-76.

Colin de Grandhomme only took one wicket but it was the key dismissal of Tamim who clipped a wide delivery to Kane Williamson at gully.

Score Board

TOSS: NEW ZEALAND

BANGLADESH INNINGS

Tamim c Williamson b Colin 126

Shadman b Boult 24

Mominul c Watling b Wagner 12

Mithun c Latham b Wagner 8

Soumya c Watling b Southee 1

Mahmudullah c Boult b Wagner 22

Liton c Boult b Wagner 29

Mehidy c Nicholls b Wagner 10

Jayed c Watling b Southee 2

Khaled b Southee 0

Ebadat c and b Wagner 0

Extras 0

Total (all out; 59.2 overs) 234

Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-121, 3-147, 4-149, 5-180, 6-207, 7-217, 8-226, 9-234, 10-234.

BOWLING: Boult 13-1-62-1, Southee 14-2-76-3, Colin 11-0-39-1, Wagner 16.2-4-47-5, Astle 5-1-10-0.

NEW ZEALAND INNINGS

Raval not out 51

Latham not out 35

Extras 0

Total (0 wkts; 28 overs) 86

BOWLING: Abu Jayed 8-1-15-0, Ebadot Hossain 8-3-26-0, Khaled Ahmed 6-3-6-0, Soumya Sarkar 1-0-8-0, Mehidy Hasan 5-0-31-0.

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/438352-new-zealand-in-command-despite-tamim-century