Lunch New Zealand 402 for 6 (Latham 177, Nicholls 53) trail Bangladesh 595 for 8 dec (Shakib 217, Mushfiqur 159, Mominul 64, Tamim 56, Sabbir 54*, Wagner 4-151) by 193 runs
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Tom Latham was dismissed five minutes before lunch for his highest Test score © Getty Images
Tom Latham fell 33 short of a maiden double century in Test cricket, and by virtue of picking up three wickets in the session, Bangladesh kept their hopes alive of coming out of Wellington with some success. The visitors retained a lead of 193, but they were hoping against hope for the Basin Reserve pitch to start breaking up.
Latham fell with about five minutes to lunch. By then he had helped New Zealand avoid the follow-on. He was in the middle for 329 balls. Since his first-class debut in 2010, only twice had he and the batting crease spent more time together. In 2013, he lasted 423 balls for an unbeaten 241 and in 2014 when a 383-ball investment gave him 261 runs. So it was understandable that were a couple of moments when fatigue set in.
Kamrul Islam Rabbi induced a drive away from the body in the 95th over with a fuller delivery angled across him – a weakness he has always battled against, and one Bangladesh didn’t exploit enough yesterday – but Mehedi Hasan at second slip was unable to hold on to a seriously difficult catch. The fielder took off to his left and was essentially horizontal with the ground, with one hand out in search of the ball but it wouldn’t stick. Two overs later, Latham went back to flick a delivery on leg stump from Shakib Al Hasan but didn’t quite do all he could have to keep it down. The ball only just fell short of Soumya Sarkar, substituting for the injured Mushfiqur Rahim, at short midwicket.
Latham was dismissed attempting a shot that contributes a lot to him being an all-conditions batsman – the sweep. He misjudged the line as Shakib tossed the ball up on middle and off. There was no room to work with, and it was a tad too full as well, sneaking under his bat to hit his front pad in front of middle stump. He walked off to warm applause from the Sunday crowd, who at one point might have been wondering if play would even happen before lunch.
Steady rain was forecast and it remained quite overcast, heavily misty even. But the umpires thought conditions were still good enough to start play on time at 10.30 am. That had to be pushed back by three minutes considering the New Zealand team was only just getting to the ground.
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Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo