Bangladesh edge ahead despite Williamson 104
Kane Williamson scored a serene 104, his 29th century in Test cricket but Bangladesh walked away with the second day honours in Sylhet. When bad light forced early Stumps, they were two wickets away from a crucial first-innings lead with the visitors still 44 behind from achieving parity. New Zealand began batting on this see-sawing day rather early after Bangladesh’s first-innings lasted all of one ball on the second morning. Tim Southee trapped Shoriful Islam in front and received validation from the DRS which showed that the ball would have cannoned into leg stump. Devon Conway and Tom Latham began earnestly in response to Bangladesh’s 310, the latter hitting Shoriful for boundaries off the second and third ball of the innings. Expectedly Mehidy Hasan Miraz bowled with the new ball and even had a review struck down against him in his first over. The breakthrough came in Taijul Islam’s first over when Latham top-edged a sweep, handing a simple catch to Nayeem Hasan. Conway’s resistance also came to an end, as he edged one from Miraz onto his pads and lobbed it up to silly point This left Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls at the crease, as they put on 34 for the third wicket, putting New Zealand back on track at Lunch. Straight after the interval, Shoriful Hasan picked up a wicket with the first ball of his new spell, getting the ball to nip away from the generally-compact Henry Nicholls, who got a faint nick to the wicketkeeper, leaving New Zealand at a precarious 98/3. Daryl Mitchell started to attack the spinners after coming in, while Williamson continued to nudge, nurdle and stroke his way to a typically fuss-free fifty. The partnership extended to 66, before Mitchell was foxed by the guile of Taijul Islam, dancing down the wicket and poking at one, missing it completely to get stumped, minutes before the Tea break. There was a bigger Taijul moment even closer to the end of the second session when Williamson, in his attempts to break the shackles, slog-swept Nayeem Hasan straight to Taijul, who shelled a simple catch. The former New Zealand captain was on 63 then and proceeded to stitch an important 78-run stand for the sixth wicket with Glenn Phillips. New Zealand appeared to have edged ahead in the contest when Bangladesh threw the ball to Mominul Haque, who last bowled in the format in 2014. It proved to be a masterstroke as the former captain got one ball to dip on Phillips and had him edging to slip where Najmul Hasan Shanto took a sharp catch. Williamson got to his hundred right after the partnership was broken but no sooner had he soaked in the applause of the milestone than he was walking back to the pavilion. The second new ball did for him as Taijul managed to bowl a slider that beat Williamson on the inside edge and crashed into the stumps. Taijul added the wicket of Ish Sodhi in that spell, leaving Bangladesh two wickets from the lead in what is already a challenging pitch to bat on. Brief scores:
New Zealand 266/8 (Kane Williamson 104, Glenn Phillips 42; Taijul Islam 4-89) trail Bangladesh 310 by 44 runs
