New Zealand in Bangladesh | WTC Series 2023

Easy win for NZ.

Shanto sounding confident ahead of the series saying they feel they can beat this NZ side!

Hope he and the rest of his boys can back that confidence up over the next two weeks!

BD batting first...just the 1 quick and 3 spinners with 8 batters...bit defensive unless its a turner.

Pitch has an even covering of grass. Kiwis have left out Ravindra!

Will be a tough game for BD...just need to get a decent first innings total first up.

Little bit of turn from Ajaz Patel in just the 7th over!

104-2 at lunch...even session...no real demons in the pitch although there is a bit of turn and variable bounce for the seamers.

Bangladesh will need to get about 400 here and should then be safe since NZ will be batting last.

Ball isn't turning much anymore. Joy and Mominul need to score big.

Almost zero prior interest in these two teams or this series but my 30 mins or so of viewing I caught earlier today was thoroughly enjoyable. Just goes to show the beauty and value of Test cricket.

First test cricket I've seen for what feels like bloody months.

Williamson in to bat. Look at that average...54.97. What a player! Even half that average would be a guy who could hold a bat!

Looks like this might turn out ot be a cracker of a Test. It has been quite a good game so far. Bangladesh will want to try and eke out a lead of around 20 runs. I suspect they will feel they can defend 250 in the fourth innings, which is probably the max that NZ will want to be chasing as well.

Shanto and Mominul on 85 run partnership heading into tea. Bangladesh with a lead of 104 with 8 wickets left. Hoping these two can both cross triple figures. Bangladesh will want as many as they can with plenty of time left to force a result here.

Lets go boys!!!

5th international century for Shanto this year! Don’t think any Bangladesh batter has hit so many before.

He’s also the fastest Bangladeshi to 5 Test centuries (25 matches). Hope he can make this a 150+ ton tomorrow!

Kriterion_BD wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 3:01 pm

5th international century for Shanto this year! Don’t think any Bangladesh batter has hit so many before.

He’s also the fastest Bangladeshi to 5 Test centuries (25 matches). Hope he can make this a 150+ ton tomorrow!

Congrats Kriterion. That was a very impressive win for Bangladesh in the first test. After a disastrous WC campaign this is a welcome result.

How good has Taijul been! Brilliant!!

Yeah its important for the next gen to start taking over from whatever platform was built by our Big 4 (Shakib, Tamim, Mushy, Mahmudullah). Those seniors did their part taking us from an ODI side that won once every 10-20 games and were the 9th or 10th ranked side up to a top 7/8 side. But their major tournament performance was only so-so. Finished 8th at two world cups, made one knockout, reached the semifinals of one Champions Trophy, and three Asia Cup finals. In Tests, they took 5-6 years to go from losing most games by an innings (up to 2012/13) to drawing Tests (2013-2015), and then a few more years to start winning somewhat consistently (2016 to present).

When we beat NZ in NZ last year, we didn't have Tamim or Shakib and it was the next generation who led from the front (Ebadat, Joy, Mominul, Shanto). Here again, no senior players except Mushy who will keep playing for another 2-3 years and might be planning to try to last till the 2027 WC. Shanto's captaincy was brilliant. Got a hundred + an attacking start on a sporting wicket, and his tactical decisions were spot on throughout the Test. Joy played a good innings. Spinners all bowled decently to support Taijul. Shoriful bowled beautifully without much assistance. Everyone contributed, even down to debutant Shahadat.

Up until 2022, our wins always had the Big 4 doing all the work whilst the "youngsters" did jack s**t for the most part. Think Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Liton Das, etc. Guys like Shanto, Miraz, Litton, and Ebadat are no longer "young", but they are the next gen after the Tamim/Shakib batch, and its good to see them step up consistently the past few years.

In fact, I am hoping Tamim and Shakib retire now because their off field feuds and other issues were probably the main reason why we did so poorly at the WC this year. Sans their disruptive presence, looks like the boys can focus on playing cricket.

What a win for Bangladesh, I figured New Zealand would win comfortably.

eugene wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 1:48 am

What a win for Bangladesh, I figured New Zealand would win comfortably.

I did too.

Obviously I feel Bangladesh playing up to their potential can beat any non-Asian side at home - heck we almost beat a near-full strength India side 11 months ago. But our form has been pretty poor going back to 2018. I do think this performance can start to turn things around for us. Since the near miss vs India we beat Ireland comfortably, and absolutely smashed Afghanistan by 500 runs or something insane like that. I think not having Tamim and Shakib is letting the next generation of players express themselves and play with great clarity of mind.

You did beat India at the Asia Cup.

eugene wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 3:57 am

You did beat India at the Asia Cup.

That was India A. Granted we had Bangladesh A as well…

The Test near win was India almost at full strength…Bumrah and Shami were the only notable absences. Of course that’s a lot of firepower in just two players but the other 8-9 guys were all first XI Indian players.

Horror start for BD...47-4 barely an hour into play.

I can't tell if its a poor wicket or terrible batting. Definitely poor batting. We really need to stop playing so many matches at all levels at this venue. Women's cricket, U19 matches, BPL, domestic FC...all games are at Mirpur which is idiotic.