Pitch report and weather forecast ? Day 1
This is a typical subcontinental pitch. Dusty and not that hard. The quicker bowlers may find the ball bursting through the top layer of the pitch early on and that might cause the batsmen some problems. But as pitches in this part of the world have shown, batting is at its best early on. It?s a bat first sort of pitch for sure.
The weather backs that decision up for sure. The first day is forecast to be hot throughout. Tomorrow there will be a lot of cloud cover and the ball will swing around. Not going to be easy for whoever bats second if they get out there anytime on the second day. May be some rain around before the match is over, but if any does come, it should be light.
Squads
Bangladesh
Tamim Iqbal (Bat)
Shahriar Nafees (Bat)
Mohammed Mahmadullah (All)
Rajin Saleh (CAPT - Bat)
Shuvagoto Hom (Bat)
Naeem Islam (All)
Shakib Al Hasan (All)
Nadimuddin (WK)
Dolar Mahmud (Bowl)
Mohammed Shariff (Bowl)
Rezaul Haque (Bowl)
Bangladesh seem to have a well-rounded team for this match. They have a nice mix of youth and experience but their bowling attack seems a little weak. It?s going to be tough for them if New Zealand put a big price on their wickets.
Watch out for
Shahriar Nafees ? He takes some of the pressure away from Tamim at the top but the fact is that he is just as talented as any batsman out there. His high scores against Sri Lanka earlier this year reflect just that.
Shakib Al Hasan ? When this pitch starts to wear, he is going to be more than a handful with his brand of left arm spin. Expect something special from him if he gets into a good spell.
New Zealand
Jeet Raval (Bat)
Brendan McCullum (WKB)
Jesse Ryder (Bat)
Ross Taylor (CAPT ? Bat)
Anaru Kitchen (Bat)
Sam Wells (All)
James Franklin (All)
Daryl Tuffey (Bowl)
Tim Southee (Bowl)
Mark Gillespie (Bowl)
Brent Arnel (Bowl)
New Zealand will rely on their top order heavily, and if they fire then the middle will just have to play their natural game. Their seam bowlers seem, on paper at least, to be more penetrative than Bangladesh?s attack but time will tell if that is indeed the case. Of concern is the lack of a specialist spinner or even a spin all-rounder. On a subcontinent pitch that may just be a big mistake.
Watch out for
Ross Taylor ? The Kiwi captain will be looking to lead from the front and he occupies an important spot at number 5 in the order.
Mark Gillespie ? His experience will be relied on heavily and after taking 7 wickets across two innings in the warm up match, he will be accustomed to the conditions in Bangladesh already.
The toss
The captains were in the middle for the all-important toss. Saleh held the coin as Taylor looked on. It was thrown into the air and Taylor called heads. The coin landed heads-up and Taylor had no second thoughts about batting.
He said that batting last on this pitch will not be easy and the first innings would therefore have to set the tone for the entire match. He hoped to get off to a good start and look to put the pressure on Bangladesh early on.
Saleh says that he would have batted if he won the toss as well. The pitch would definitely wear as time went on but that meant that they had to make sure to dismiss New Zealand for a modest total in the first innings so that they could bat while the batting was still good.
Play ? Day 1
Surprisingly for Day 1 of a Test, there were quite a few supporters in the ground. Not more than about a couple thousand, but with Test match popularity decreasing, it was good to see that some people still supported Tests.
Bangladesh started well, bowling a good line and length. New Zealand struggled to get the bowlers away and the angle of the left armer Haque combined with his pace was difficult to cope with.
The pressure told on Raval in the 8th over of the day when he tried to hit one back over Mahmud but he mistimed it horribly and the ball returned to Mahmud away to his right. He adjusted well in his follow through and took a good return catch to send Raval packing for only 10.
Haque was only used for a short burst before Sharif came into the attack to replace him. He was not sluggish either, and regularly bowled near 90 miles an hour. That pace did McCullum in with the score on 42 as he played at one that was just too fast for him. He could not get the bat down in time and the ball went underneath it to send the bails flying.
McCullum was well bowled by Sharif
That wicket brought Taylor to the crease and he showed Bangladesh that he was not about to be intimidated by knocking his first ball into the offside behind point. The ball just seemed to gather speed on its way to the boundary and it was obvious that Taylor was timing it well right from the start.
Taylor and Ryder took advantage of the aggressive field setting to get themselves some singles and twos and even three here and there. Sharif would have had Ryder caught by second slip with about 30 minutes to go to the lunch break, but he grassed the chance after doing the hard work by getting down to the ball in time. He was on 10 at the time.
Taylor added insult to injury as he took Sharif for a couple of sixes off of consecutive overs. The first was hit back past the bowler and hit the sight screen beyond the boundary while the second was cut hard and over point.
The fifty partnership came with about 10 minutes to go until lunch and it was a partnership that the Kiwis had needed.
Ryder, left, and Taylor proved to be troublesome to remove
Ryder refused to just block it out until the break and in fact it was then that he started to take advantage of the bowlers, hitting three fours in the final two overs before the interval to take his score into the 40s. New Zealand went into the pavilion at 106 for 2. Bangladesh had started well but New Zealand had recovered equally well.
Ryder?s fifty came up a few overs after the break with a quick single past backward point. Bangladesh would be regretting dropping him when he was on 10. Taylor got his half century a short time later with a guided ball to third man. That single brought up both his fifty and the hundred partnership. Bangladesh needed to break that partnership as soon as they could.
But they would not budge from the crease. The runs just kept flowing and they seemed to be finding the boundary almost at will. By tea the partnership had swelled to 162 and the overall score stood at 204 for 2.
Immediately after tea Saleh decided to try something different. He put Tamim?s medium pace into the attack and the move paid off in his first over when he had Taylor beaten with a little off cutter that hit the pads for an easy LBW decision. The third wicket finally fell as Taylor walked back after making 90.
Saleh returned to his frontline seamers in the next over and Kitchen was beaten by Haque?s pace, losing his off stump in the process. He went for 4 and Haque celebrated his first Test wicket.
Ryder kept going and entered the 90s soon enough. At the other end it was not easy for Wells but he was solid in defense, realizing that as long as Ryder kept going the score would keep going up. It took him some time in the 90s, though. Wells hung in there at his end and soon enough he started to play his shots, helping to take the pressure off of his partner.
Ryder seemed to appreciate that and he calmed down, looking for the singles instead of the big shots. He did play one big shot to get to his century, however he timed it well and it sped away to the boundary. They were the last runs he would make, though, as Shakib floated one up to him. His eyes opened wide as he saw his chance and he stepped out of his crease and came at the ball. It spun away from him and Nadimuddin collected well and had the bails off in an instant. Ryder was well out and he did not bother to wait for the umpire standing at square leg to give him the signal. But he had made 90 runs too much after being dropped early on in his innings.
Bangladesh would have been happy to see Ryder walking back
The spinners enjoyed a good spell in tandem and Mahmadullah soon added another to the wickets column when he had Wells caught in front to another spinning ball that would probably have taken the middle stump about halfway up. New Zealand were letting their strong position slip away as they had gone from 204 for 2 to 261 for 6.
The slide continued just a ball later as Tuffey tentatively pushed at one that was aimed in the rough that the left armer Haque had created outside the right hander?s off stump. The ball spun just enough to kiss the edge of the bat before settling in Nadimuddin?s gloves.
Mahmadullah was on a hat trick as Southee came out. Saleh backed his bowler by putting 6 men close to the bat, not including the keeper. Mahmadullah came in to bowl but the ball this time was too wide to bother Southee and he kept his bat well inside the line. Hat trick avoided.
Mahmadullah troubled New Zealand's lower middle order
With the tail exposed, Bangladesh took the new ball as soon as it was due in the hopes that the seamers would clean the batsmen up cheaply. Mahmud was the first man to respond, beating Southee?s bat and taking the leg stump. New Zealand just about managed to bat out until the end of the day but not a lot was expected of them tomorrow.
End of Day 1 ? New Zealand 294/8, Ryder 100, Mahmadullah 2-35
Rezaul Haque is the man speaking to the cameras after Day 1 ended. The topic of his first ever Test wicket is on the cards. He says there is no feeling like it and thinking about it makes him feel the excitement all over again. As for being recalled to the team for his second Test match, he says that he has been bowling well for his club and he knew that he would have been called up eventually. He wants New Zealand to be all out for less than 300 but if they get past that, then as low as possible. Things were hard with Ryder and Taylor in the middle but the bowlers had come back well to get them in the position they now were.
