On Day 1 of the second Test at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, New Zealand battled to 55 for five at stumps, in response to Bangladesh’s first innings total of 172.
The spinners had a field day, with Bangladesh off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz picking up three wickets and Taijul Islam picking up two in what was a challenging day at the office for the hitters.
Despite the poor turner, Kiwi spinner Mitchell Santner, who was important in keeping the hosts under 200 by taking three wickets, said the visitors were ready for such a task going into the Mirpur Test.
“That’s right, it’s whirling. When we come over to this area of the world, that’s the difficulty; it does spin, which is cool. It’s fantastic for us to come here and challenge ourselves on these types of wickets because when we go home, we manufacture green ones that can nip around,” Santner, who returned to the side after missing the first Test in Sylhet, told the media on Wednesday.
“We know how good Bangladesh is at home, and they’re very difficult to beat in these circumstances.” “They demonstrated that in the first test; the blueprint for how to approach their work on these types of surfaces,” he continued.
The Kiwis are still down by 117 runs despite having five wickets in hand.
“We know it’s going to be difficult. We just talked about attempting to form those alliances. It might not be an 80 or 90 for whoever comes in, but it might be a speedy 30. Building those partnerships and attempting to get a level score before scrapping. “It’s going to be a battle for the next few days,” he predicted.