Exactly 23 months ago, Bangladesh had defeated New Zealand in the Mount Maunganui Test on their own soil. This was the first time that Bangladesh defeated the Kiwi team in a Test match. Bangladesh players celebrated this historic victory thoroughly. Now this team will get another big celebration in this oldest and longest format of red-ball cricket.
In fact, Bangladesh is once again preparing to defeat the New Zealand team. This time she is about to achieve this special victory on her soil. The Bangladesh team is the driving force in the Test match to be played in Sylhet. Bangladesh completely outclassed New Zealand by putting in excellent performances on all four days of this Test. Now, on the fifth matchday, the only task left for the Bangladesh team is to meet their food needs. Here, Bangladesh’s victory is considered certain as New Zealand still need to score 219 more runs to win and only have 3 wickets left.
In this Test match, New Zealand captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto won the toss and elected to bat first. Thanks to Mahmudul Hasan Joy’s innings of 86 runs and small innings from the rest of the batsmen, Bangladesh scored 310 runs in the first innings of the game. This result was good considering Sylhet’s pitch. In this way, the game remained in Bangladesh’s name on the first day. On the second day, Bangladesh bowlers performed miracles and New Zealand lost 8 wickets after reaching 266 runs. Here Kane Williamson definitely scored a century but the batsman turned out to be a flop. But on the third day, Team Saudi (35) took the New Zealand team to over 300. New Zealand scored 317 runs in their first innings and took a 7-run lead in the game.
The Kiwis had the upper hand in the first session of the third day. Early in the second session, the Kiwis consolidated their control of the game by sending both Bangladesh openers to the floor. But then Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto’s century innings (105) and the support of the rest of the batsmen took the Bangladesh team to 338 runs. In this way, New Zealand now had the target of winning by 332 runs.
On the fourth day of the match, New Zealand lost to this major goal. Such a series of falling wickets started from the beginning and lasted until the end of the day’s play. The result was that by the time of stumps on the fourth day, New Zealand had scored only 113 runs and lost 7 wickets. Apart from Daryl Mitchell (44), no other batsman could stay on the field for long. Daryl Mitchell is still undefeated. Now it remains to be seen how long he can save the Kiwi team on the fifth and final day. Taijul Islam has proven to be Bangladesh’s most successful bowler. He took 4-4 wickets in both innings.