Lunch: New Zealand 70 for 2 (Latham 38*, Taylor 10*, Kamrul 2-18) trail Bangladesh 289 by 219 runs
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Kamrul Islam Rabbi dismissed Jeet Raval and Kane Williamson in the space of two balls © AFP
Two wickets in three balls from Kamrul Islam Rabbi kept the second Test in the balance in Christchurch as New Zealand began their reply to Bangladesh’s 289. On a pitch that seemed to offer a little more help to the seamers than it had on day one, Bangladesh created frequent chances and could have put New Zealand under even more pressure had they converted all of them.
As it happened, they dropped two regulation catches in the slips. In the fourth over of the day, Jeet Raval drove away from his body at an offbreak from Mehedi Hasan and sent an edge flying low to second slip, where the ball slipped through the fingertips of Mahmudullah, who could have stayed lower for longer. Then, in the eleventh over, Raval had moved to 12 when he nicked a delivery of superb length angled across him by Taskin Ahmed. This time Sabbir Ahmed, moving to his right from second slip, grassed the catch that came to him at around knee height.
The opening partnership between Raval and Tom Latham stretched to 46 before Kamrul, coming on as second change, broke through in the 15th over, his first. Trying to pull one that was perhaps not short enough for it, Raval was cramped for room and only managed a bottom-edge into the stumps.
Then, two balls later, New Zealand were two down. Kane Williamson may be among the hardest players in the world to dismiss, but even he could do little when confronted with the perfect late outswinger – full enough to draw him forward but not so full that he could get close to the pitch of it, its initial line close enough to off stump to force him to play, and its movement late enough to prevent him from adjusting and withdrawing his bat. The debutant wicketkeeper Nurul Islam tumbled to his right to take his first catch in Test cricket.
More to follow…
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo