Onus on Bangladesh quicks to step up as New Zealand eye series win

Vijay New Zealand have almost everything in place in Wellington to wrap up the Test series against Bangladesh. They have the pace attack, which has already sent a stern message across to the visiting batsmen. They also have the firepower in batting, the record-setting 715 for 6 in the Hamilton Test proving to be the difference between the two sides. They will, however, be wary of rain in the forecast, and the possibility of a Bangladesh fightback.

Bangladesh took three positives from the Hamilton Test. Tamim Iqbal scored 200 runs in the game, which included his first century in New Zealand. It was an instructive effort from the senior batsman who decided to duck under Neil Wagner's short-ball bombardment in both innings.

Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar also batted admirably in the second innings, which was a corrective measure after their soft dismissals in the first. Mahmudullah was more of a support act during the 235-run fifth-wicket stand with Soumya, who attacked as soon as he figured out how to avoid getting hit on the body.

Otherwise, Bangladesh didn't have much to cheer for. Their rookie three-man pace attack conceded 369 runs in 87 overs, taking just one wicket. Mehidy Hasan had a particularly poor outing, his 2 for 246 the worst figures by a Bangladeshi bowler in a Test innings. There will be a lot of improvement needed from the bowling attack if they are to at least challenge the New Zealand batsmen.

At the same time, the batsmen - particularly Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Mohammad Mithun and Liton Das - will have to withstand Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Neil Wagner.

The New Zealand trio took 19 out of the 20 wickets that fell in Hamilton, mostly with short-pitched deliveries that rattled the Bangladesh batsmen. Whether Wagner, especially, us able to do it again in Wellington is something everyone will have an eye on.

 Form guide

New Zealand: WWDWL (Last five completed matches, most recent first)
 

Bangladesh: LWWWL

In the spotlight

Given the nature of the Wellington pitch, the Bangladesh batsmen will be wary of Neil Wagner's bouncer barrage, especially after he picked up a five-wicket haul in Hamilton. Wagner's energy levels are unusually high, which is bad news for the visitors.

Soumya Sarkar's maiden Test century came nearly four years into his Test career, and it was almost as promised: filled with attractive shots. The spotlight will be on Soumya to see how he follows up the 149 in Wellington.

Team news

If New Zealand go for an all-pace attack, legspinner Todd Astle may have to make way for Matt Henry, although Kane Williamson may opt for a bit of variety.

New Zealand (probable): 1 Jeet Raval, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Henry Nicholls, 6 BJ Watling (wk), 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Todd Astle, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Trent Boult

Tamim is currently nursing a groin niggle, but Bangladesh are unlikely to tinker with their batting line-up, mainly because they don't have a spare batsman. Mustafizur Rahman will be coming in, possibly in place of Mehidy Hasan.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Shadman Islam, 3 Mominul Haque, 4 Mohammad Mithun, 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Liton Das (wk), 7 Soumya Sarkar, 8 Khaled Ahmed, 9 Abu Jayed, 10 Ebadat Hossain, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Pitch and conditions

Basin Reserve is - quite literally - a green strip in between three brown pitches, which is likely to help the fast bowlers. Rain has also been forecasted for four of the five days.

Stats and trivia

With his 146 in Hamilton, Mahmudullah now has three centuries in Bangladesh's last three Tests.

Boult's 5 for 123 was the most expensive among his eight five-wicket hauls.

 

Jeet Raval and Latham hundreds set up New Zealand's dominance

New Zealand 451 for 4 (Williamson 93*, Wagner 1*) lead Bangladesh 234 by 217 runs

Jeet Raval reached his maiden Test hundred

Jeet Raval and Tom Latham put down the strongest foundation possible, on which Kane Williamson built steadily with help from Henry Nicholls as New Zealand dominated the second day in Hamilton. Three of their four wickets came from Bangladesh's part-timers as none of their specialist bowlers put together a spell to talk about.

Raval, who made his maiden Test hundred and Latham, who made his fourth 150-plus score, put together 254 for the opening stand. Then Williamson, unbeaten on 93 at the close, added 100 for the fourth wicket with Nicholls, who chipped in with a half-century filled with pretty shots. The stand put together by Raval and Latham was the third highest in New Zealand's Test history.

They began the second morning just as they had ended the first day, with total dominance. Raval pushed the scoring rate with regular boundaries in the first hour, before moving into the nineties with a superbly timed boundary off Khaled Ahmed. The century was reached soon afterwards from 163 balls with a pull off Ebadat Hossain. He also reached 1000 Test runs off the same ball.

Within the first seven overs of the post-lunch session Latham, who had been dropped second ball yesterday evening, also reached his hundred off 170 balls, albeit a little fortunately with a top edged pull off Abu Jayed. Until that point, Latham had scored half his boundaries in the straight arc, between mid-on and mid-off, and the other half through point and square-leg.

Raval also kept up the pressure from his end, hitting Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Ebadat for boundaries, the second a delightful dab between wide slip and gully. But he fell to Mahmudullah in the 70th over, skying a catch to Khaled at midwicket, to give the visitors at least something to smile. Raval had struck 19 fours and a six in his knock that spanned just over five hours.

The wicket hardly affected Latham who continued to cut, pull and loft spin and pace with ease, as he entered an impressive New Zealand club of batsmen to have crossed 150 for four or more times. Soon after the tea break, however, Mohammad Mithun grabbed an excellent chance at a wide slip when Latham tried to slash Soumya Sarkar to third man, bringing an end an innings that spanned 248 balls in just over six hours at the crease

Soumya shared the second new ball in an interesting move and it paid off when he had Ross Taylor lbw for 4 with a delivery that moved into his front pad as Taylor tried playing around it.

But the New Zealand batting line-up is full of steady hands, Williamson and Nicholls took over the innings building duty, initially with a little more caution but the pace never slowed that much. Nicholls found boundaries within a short time, including a late cut, straight drive, cover drive and a pick-up through midwicket that really stood out.

During all this time, Williamson accumulated another Test fifty without much fuss. There were the driven boundaries through mid-off as well as well-timed square cuts, but his approach was more of a background guy. He was missed on 81 when he edged Mehidy fine of Soumya at slip, a tough chance but the fielder appeared a little slow to react.

At the end of a day of toil, Mehidy claimed his first wicket with delivery that held its line and bowled Nicholls who didn't offer a shot. It brought a smile to some of the Bangladesh faces, although it was one tough outing and they found themselves well behind New Zealand.