Taijul Spins New Zealand into Trouble as Bangladesh Close In on Victory
Left-arm spinner takes 4/40 as Kiwis crumble to 113/7
In the first Test of the series, Taijul Islam, a left-arm spinner, amassed 4/40 to torment New Zealand's batting lineup as Bangladesh got closer to winning.
Day IV ended with New Zealand down to 113/7 at stumps, needing to reach 332 to win.
Daryl Mitchell finished the day with 44 after batting patiently, with Ish Sodhi at 7. Devon Conway, the opener, was the only other batter to muster an oppositional total of 22.
Tom Latham's bad run was prolonged by pacer Shoriful Islam, who dismissed him for a six-ball duck in the opening over. Meanwhile, on a wicket that was getting worse, Kane Williamson was unable to add to his opening-inning century. Williamson gave Mehidy Hasan a couple of boundaries early on, but Taijul kept him off balance by changing the pace, eventually trapping him for eleven runs. Williamson did a fruitless review.
The next to go was Henry Nicholls, who top-edged a slog-sweep at short fine leg for two off Mehidy to Nayeem Hasan.
With wickets falling all around him, Conway was playing with optimism and
swept the spinners perfectly to keep the scoreboard moving, and Taijul got him caught at short leg by Shahadat Hossain.
The pressure was on Mitchell with New Zealand at 46/4, but he received little assistance from the other end.
After Taijul stifled wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell (6) and he edged a turning delivery behind, Nayeem successfully reviewed to remove Glenn Phillips, further containing the visitors.
After Taijul defeated Kyle Jamieson for seven wickets, Bangladesh appeared to have the victory secured by the end of the day.
But before the poor light forced stumps, Mitchell and Sodhi made it through a challenging thirty minutes.
Bangladesh was earlier bowled out in their second innings for 338. Bangladesh lost wickets one after the other, with Najmul Hossain Shanto adding just one run to his overnight total before being removed for 105.
With the score at 212/3 at the beginning of the day, the hosts lost Shanto in the second over after Tim Southee caught him down the leg side. Mehidy Hasan's fifty runs without a wicket helped the team surpass 300. Mushfiqur Rahim reached his 27th half-century in Test cricket off 79 balls, but was unable to make it to a century.
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