Bangladesh have stunned New Zealand, defeating the Blackcaps for the first time. (Photo: ICC/Twitter)
Bangladesh has created a slice of cricketing history for themselves, stunning the ICC World Test champions New Zealand with a stirring eight-wicket victory at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui.
Playing their sixth series in New Zealand, the away side secured their first-ever Test match win against the second-ranked side in the world.
A team effort
Bangladesh won the toss and elected to send New Zealand into bat, which looked like a shaky decision early as the Kiwis went on to post a score of 328. 30-year-old Devon Conway played a fantastic innings, bringing up his second Test match century.
The wickets were shared amongst the Bangladeshi bowlers, with Shoriful Islam and Mehedi Hasan picking up three wickets each in the first innings.
Across days two and three, the Bangladesh batters dug in and despite no players scoring a ton, they scored a mammoth 458 runs. Mahmudul Hasan Joy (78) and Nazmul Hossani Shanto (64) built a great foundation at the top of the order, whilst Mominul Haque (88) and wicket-keeping superstar Liton Das (86) fell just short of a Test century.
Man of the moment
As Bangladesh wasted all three reviews before the third wicket was felled, including an LBW shout which struck the middle of Ross Taylor’s bat, one man stood tall for his nation.
The game was petering out into what looked to be a certain draw late on day four, but Ebadot Hossain bowled fast and straight, taking the early wicket of Conway to start a magical spell of bowling.
Then, just minutes before the end of the day, Ebadat sent Will Young’s (69) stumps cartwheeling before Henry Nicholls (0) suffered the same fate and Tom Blundell (0) was out LBW in a scintillating three-over spell of fast bowling before stumps was called.
On the morning of day five, outgoing Kiwi legend Taylor (40) saw his stumps castled over and Kyle Jamieson was caught, both bowled by that man Ebadat.
New Zealand’s innings ended quickly on the final morning, with a stunning final wicket outfield catch by substitute Taijul Islam the cherry on top on a famous day for Bangladesh.
The run chase of just 40 was secured relatively easily, with the Tigers home inside an hour. The celebrations were wild as Mushfiqur Rahim played a sensational cut shot to score the winning runs.
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Post-match passion
Speaking after the win, bowler Taskin Ahmed said the team was never thinking about the end result.
“We didn’t think that about the result, we always stick to our processes and give our 110 per cent – everyone,” he said.
“It’s really lovely to have this support (of the Bangladesh fans). It’s feeling great.”
Player-of-the-match Ebadat spoke of the passion he and his teammates have for their nation.
“When we came to New Zealand, we set a goal: all our teammates raised our hands. We have to do it, we can do it on New Zealand soil. We can beat New Zealand,” he said.
“The New Zealand we know, they’re Test champions, so if we raise our hand and beat New Zealand on New Zealand soil, it means our next generation have to beat New Zealand, so that is the main goal.”
New Zealand’s streak is over
New Zealand boasts one of the best home records in Test cricket, having won 13 of their previous 17 games on home soil; their last loss at home was to South Africa at Basin Reserve five years ago.
The Blackcaps had never previously lost to Bangladesh at home and will lick their wounds before facing them again in Christchurch in just four days’ time.
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