Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam claimed a match haul of 10 wickets to bowl Bangladesh to a comprehensive 150-run victory against New Zealand in the opening Test in Sylhet yesterday.
Chasing 332 for victory on a turning track, New Zealand headed into the final day on a precarious 113-7 against a spin-heavy Bangladesh attack on a dry and turning pitch.
Overnight batter Daryl Mitchell (58) completed his fifty and skipper Tim Southee (34) staged a brief rearguard but Bangladesh needed 90 minutes on the final day to wrap up victory and go 1-0 up in the two-Test series.
It was a memorable win for a depleted Bangladesh side missing several frontline players through injuries, including regular captain Shakib Al Hasan, against a full-strength New Zealand side.
Taijul claimed 6-75 in the second innings and was the obvious choice for the player-of-the-match award.
“We were not thinking about the result, we just followed our process,” stand-in Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto said after their first test win on home soil against New Zealand.
“The job is half done, we still have a long way to go.”
Batting fourth on a turning track in the sub-continent counts among the game’s greatest challenges and New Zealand’s frontline batters failed the trial by spin on Friday.
Only Mitchell had looked assured facing the spinners with a shoal of fielders around his bat and once his slog-sweep against Nayeem Hasan found Taijul at backward square, the game was all but over for New Zealand.
Southee was not prepared to go down with a fight though as he smashed a couple of sixes, while Ish Sodhi (22) also resisted for a while before Taijul removed both.
New Zealand captain Tim Southee refused to blame fatigue from a gruelling ODI World Cup campaign in India for his side’s defeat. New Zealand retained several players from the World Cup for the tour, but they failed to reproduce their sparkle from the earlier tournament, slumping to 181 all out in their second innings to fall to a 150-run loss.
The Kiwis lost to hosts India in the semi-final of the World Cup, which ended on November 19.
Yesterday’s defeat was only New Zealand’s second in Tests against Bangladesh, with the first coming at home in January 2022.
“We had a little bit of a break after the World Cup. But I think as players, you know that it’s a busy schedule,” said Southee after the defeat in Sylhet.
“You know what’s in front of you. You’re trying to freshen up as well as you can. The guys were in good spirits before this.
“It’s been a long time on the road for some but that’s part and parcel of being an international cricketer.”
New Zealand have played 55 matches across all formats this year, mostly away, with the side last playing a home series against Sri Lanka in March and April.
This series in Bangladesh marks the beginning of a new cycle of the World Test Championship, but Southee preferred to focus on the present.
“Nothing changes for us. You worry about what’s in front of you, and what’s in front of us is a Test match in Dhaka,” he said, referring to the upcoming second Test.
“Our next challenge is to try and be better than what we’ve been here... as players, we look back on this and we’ll keep looking at ways to move forward.”
He defended his side’s team selection, which saw Kyle Jamieson preferred ahead of Neil Wagner, with Ish Sodhi and Ajaz Patel forming the spin attack.
“You look at the conditions, and you look at the squad you’ve got, and you pick your best 11,” he said.
“You look at the bowling group and KJ (Jamieson) has been a phenomenal performer for us, Ish Sodhi was the man of the series in the last series that he played, and AJ (Patel) has been a great bowler for us,” he said.
He also praised the Bangladesh team for their performance instead of blaming the wicket.
“I think the Bangladesh bowlers bowled well, and (were) very accurate,” he said.
“We were probably a little bit off in terms of our ability to build pressure for long periods of time.”
The second Test of the series will be held in Dhaka between December 6 and 10
Scoreboard Bangladesh first innings 310 all out
New Zealand first innings 317 all out Bangladesh second innings 338New Zealand second innings (overnight 113-7)
T. Latham c Nurul b Shoriful 0
D. Conway c Shahadat b Taijul 22
K. Williamson lbw b Taijul 11
H. Nicholls c Nayeem b Mehidy 2
D. Mitchell c Taijul b Nayeem 58
T. Blundell c Nurul b Taijul 6
G. Phillips lbw b Nayeem 12
K. Jamieson lbw b Taijul 9
I. Sodhi c Zakir b Taijul 22
T. Southee c Zakir b Taijul 34
A. Patel not out 0
Extras (b4, nb1) 5
Total (all out; 71.1 overs) 181
Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Latham), 2-19 (Williamson), 3-30 (Nicholls), 4-46 (Conway), 5-60 (Blundell), 6-81 (Phillips), 7-102 (Jamieson), 8-132 (Mitchell), 9-178 (Southee), 10-181(Sodhi)
Bowling: Shoriful 6-2-13-1, Mehidy 15-4-44-1, Taijul 31.1-8-75-6 (nb1), Nayeem 17-3-40-2, Mominul 2-0-5-0
Result: Bangladesh win by 150 runs
Series: Bangladesh lead
two-match series 1-0.