New Zealand's Neil Wagner (centre) celebrates the wicket of Bangladesh's Taijul Islam with teammates during day five of the second cricket Test match between New Zealand and Bangladesh at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on March 12, 2019.
Neil Wagner again bounced out the middle and lower order to seal New Zealand’s victory by an innings and 12 over Bangladesh in the second cricket Test and a winning 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Bangladesh resumed on the final day at 80-3 on Tuesday, still trailing by 141 runs after New Zealand declared at 432-6 with an overall first-innings lead of 221. The tourists were eventually all out for 209.
A brave innings of 67 by captain Mahmudullah delayed New Zealand’s push for victory and it was forced to claim an extra 15 minutes after the scheduled lunch break to claim the last two wickets it needed to seal the match and series.
Wagner dismissed Mahmudullah in that period to claim his fifth wicket, to finish with innings figures of 5-45 and match figures of 9-73. Trent Boult then bowled Ebadot Hossain to end the match and finish with 4-52.
New Zealand won the first Test at Hamilton by an innings and 52 runs and is pushing for a sweep in the third Test, which starts at Christchurch on Saturday.
New Zealand’s victory at the Basin Reserve was more extraordinary because the first two days of the match were entirely lost to rain, yet it managed to win in less than 2-1/2 days or seven extended sessions.
“It was a fantastic performance with a limited amount of cricket,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said. Williamson wasn’t on the field at the end, resting because of a shoulder injury while wicketkeeper B.J. Watling also had to be replaced by a substitute fielder on the final day.
“To be not quite at our best with the ball in the first innings but to still be effective enough to bowl Bangladesh out for 200 was important,” Williamson said. “Then we had to score quickly to have a chance of a result in this game going in our favor. A fantastic double century from Ross (Taylor) and some other good contributions put us in that position.
“We were under a bit of pressure at the end of the first day and obviously the wicket was offering a lot. We didn’t see it unfolding as it did.”
One of the keys to New Zealand’s win was the toss. When the covers finally came off the Basin Reserve pitch on the third day and after two days of steady rain it was bright green, bouncy and ideally suited to seam bowling.
New Zealand’s new ball bowlers missed their lengths and Bangladesh reached 119-1 before Wagner bounced his way through their middle order and put New Zealand on top.
New Zealand, in turn, was 8-2 in its first innings before Williamson and Taylor combined in a 172-run partnership for the third wicket. Taylor, dropped twice on 20, went on to his third double century in a 216-run partnership with Henry Nicholls, who made 107.
The home team scored fast enough to advance the game and allow itself time to bowl out Bangladesh.
Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun (47) and Soumya Sarkar (28) put up some resistance but Wagner was once again able to bounce his way through even the most stubborn defences and to clinch a second straight innings victory.
“Obviously very disappointing,” Mahmudullah said. “I think we could have done a lot better and we feel we’re much better than that.
“We know that there was a bit of help with the new ball and even with the semi new ball but we should have applied ourselves a bit better, so going forward to the next match we need to adapt as soon as we can.”
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