Bangladesh scripted arguably their greatest ever cricketing triumph on January 5 in Mount Maunganui as they clinched their maiden Test win against New Zealand. The Asian Tigers also broke their longstanding losing streak and pulled off first-ever international victory on New Zealand soil versus New Zealand.
An inspirational result at the start of the year, Bangladesh’s victory is a fantastic outcome for the livelihood of the Test match game and a great advert for the merits of the World Test Championship as a concept.
Not a single soul in the world, not even the most passionate Bangladeshi fans, would’ve given their team a chance to claim a Test victory in New Zealand, having seen their team get battered and bruised in their previous nine encounters in the country.
What would please the Bangladesh fans the most is that this was a win built on quality fast-bowling and steady batting over the course of five days. In that, the tourists found heroes with the ball in seamers Ebadot Hossain and Shoriful Islam.
Ebadot’s heroic spell of 6/46 in the second innings helped Bangladesh dismiss the Kiwis for only 169 runs, not allowing the hosts to overhaul their lead by more than 39 runs.
Taskin Ahmed also contributed with three wickets (3/36), as did Islam in the first essay (3/69) when the visitors kept the Kiwis down to only 328 runs after Bangladesh opted to bowl first upon winning the toss on a surface with enough grass cover that got easier to bat in the middle of the Test before starting to wear off and behave unevenly.
A darkhorse of Bangladesh’s memorable win was off-spinner Mehidy Hasan, who delivered marathon spells of 3/86 and 1/43 and kept an end tight throughout the Test, which then allowed skipper Mominul Haque to rest and rotate his pacers nicely. Haque’s gentle left-arm spinner also contributed well, as he took two important wickets in the first half.
The captain then led his team from the front with a terrific 88 in the first half where half-centuries from Mahmudul Hasan Joy (78), Najmul Hossain Shanto (64) and Liton Das (86), and Mehidy’s lower-order rearguard with 47 helped Bangladesh build a giant total of 458, and most importantly take a decisive lead of 130 runs.
So often questioned for their ability to show patience, composure and a tight defence at the Test level, Bangladesh imbibed and showcased those qualities for over 176 overs with the bat against New Zealand’s greatest-ever pace attack, featuring Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson and that, despite missing their premier allrounder Shakib Al Hasan and experienced opener Tamim Iqbal.
The fab quartet was made to do the heavy loading for nearly over two days by an inexperienced but undoubtedly talented Bangladesh batting unit. But this being a rare occasion of not a single member of the fab Kiwi pace quartet coming up with a stand-out performance, much of the blame for New Zealand’s defeat goes to their batters.
Devon Conway made a superb hundred (122) on Day 1, while Will Young (52) and Henry Nicholls (75) made the fifties. But NZ’s middle and lower-order collapsed in either innings of the Test against some disciplined Bangladesh bowling.
The painstaking struggle in the absence of stalwart Williamson was most evident in the second half where outside Young’s 69 and Ross Taylor’s 40, nobody stood up the task for long enough.
Bangladesh did lose two wickets in the process but eventually chased down the paltry 40-run target on what will remain a memorable afternoon in their cricket history.
With their unprecedented win, Bangladesh also made sure they can’t lose the series, taking an unassailable 1-0 lead in the two-match rubber.
Brief scores
New Zealand 328/10 (Conway 122, Nicholls 75; Islam 3/69) & 169/10 ( Young 69, Taylor 40; Hossain 6/46) lost to Bangladesh 458/10 (Haque 88, Das 86; Boult 4/85) & 42/2 (Shanto 17, Haque 13*; Jamieson 1/12) by 8 wickets
