The fact that the number of wickets in the house is still 4 is the great relief of Bangladesh. Muminul Haque and Mushfiqur Rahim both survived being out. Muminul survived the dismissal once the third umpire’s review caught the bowler’s no ball.
However, the fate of Mahmudul Hasan was not so auspicious. Mahmudul has been out in the fourth over of the day. After losing to him, Mushfiqur-Muminul pair made Bangladesh cross 200 runs. After that Mushfiqur also got out.
The first session ended at the time of writing this report. Bangladesh scored 220 for 4. Muminul started the day with 6 runs unbeaten 18 runs. New batsman Liton Das scored 12 runs in the crease. Liton hit two fours in one over of Saudi.
Mahmudul was out for 6 runs. Mushfiqur Bold scored 12 runs. Bangladesh is still 106 runs behind New Zealand.
Having a great day at Mount Manganui yesterday was a big challenge for Bangladesh on the morning of the third day, to get 13 overs well before taking the new ball. Mahmudul showed great patience with the bat yesterday.
But Mahmudul, who started the day with 60 runs, was shaky from the beginning. His legs were not moving, he was standing in place and playing shots away from his body. Defeated several times, in the over before he was out, he kept the bat away from his body due to the sudden rise outside of Jamison’s off stump, but did not get out for a short while. Even before the dismissal, Neil Wagner did not go to the ball line and kept the bat away from the body, the ball was in the air for a while.
But the next ball could not live. Nichols was caught abusing a lazy shot with a short length ball.
Then there was a lot of drama. Muminul survived the next ball, that is, the first ball of the next over by Jamieson. Mushfiqur hit four in the next cover drive, but it was also a no-ball!
Because of this no ball, Mominul survived by catching the ball of Wagner in the 69th over. No ball caught in the replay of the third umpire! Earlier, Mominul also survived the first ball of the 65th over by catching bowler Jamison. Before taking the new ball, the Bangladesh Test captain was defeated by the last two balls of the 70th over.
Muminul took 2 runs off the first ball of Trent Bolt in the 65th over and Bangladesh reached 200.
Mushfiqur was dismissed by Bolt after four overs. Mushfiqur went to flick Bolt’s stump straight from round the wicket, but the ball hit the gap between his bat and pads and hit the stumps.
