Bangladesh’s Mominul Haque celebrates taking the wicket of New Zealand skipper Tim Southee. Photo: Firoz Ahmed
Mominul Haque turned out to be the man with the golden arm for Bangladesh as the part-time spinner got two wickets in his only over of the day to break a crucial partnership and also bundle out New Zealand for 317, with a seven-run lead over the hosts, in their first innings on Day 3 of their first Test at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium today.
Introduced in the 102nd over for the first time on the day, Mominul had Kyle Jamieson trapped in front with his very first delivery. The ball held its line and went on to hit Jamieson on his pads and would go on to hit the middle and leg stumps, as even shown in the review taken by the Kiwis. The wicket ended a 52-run stand between Jamieson (23 off 70) and Southee.
Mominul then wrapped it up with the wicket of Southee, who had batted brilliantly to add valuable runs for the Kiwis, with his fifth delivery of the over. Southee (35 off 62) tried to play across the line only to see the ball crashing onto his stumps to the delight of the Tigers.
The previous day, Mominul had ended a 78-run stand between Kane Williamson and Glenn Phillips by scalping the wicket of the latter with his very first delivery of the game.
Mominul ended with his best-ever Test bowling figures of three for four in just 3.5 overs.
New Zealand’s Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson at the end of Day 2 of first Test against Bangladesh. Photo: Firoz Ahmed
Southee, Jamieson frustrate Tigers as Kiwis take lead
Bangladesh failed to get an early breakthrough as New Zealand tailenders frustrated the Tigers, overtaking the hosts’ first-innings total of 310 early on Day 3 of their first Test at the Sylhet International Stadium today.
New Zealand began the day at 266 for eight, still 44 runs behind the Tigers’ first-innings score.
However, Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson showed grit and patience as they batted rather with ease to deny Bangladesh bowlers any real opportunity.
New Zealand moved on to 316 for eight, leading by six runs with Southee unbeaten on 35 off 61 and Jamieson not out on 23 off 69.
Southee and Jamieson also added 52 runs for the ninth wicket.
However, Bangladesh did come close to getting wickets on a few occasions. A Mehedi Hasan Miraz delivery had seemingly hit Jamieson on his pads with Bangladesh players going up for a huge appeal, only to be denied by the umpire and the Tigers opting not to go for a review, doubting the ball might have missed the leg stump. The other time was when a Nayeem Hasan delivery took an inside edge off the bat of Southee but missed the stumps to go down for a boundary.
