Bangladesh relied on popular adage ‘cricket is a glorious game of uncertainty’ as a defeat stared at them in the second Test at Basin Reserve in Wellington despite first two days of the match washed out following a heavy rain.
Opening batsman Tamim Iqbal admitted that it would be embarrassing for them to concede defeat in just three days of the game but he banked on the fact that ‘anything is possible in the game of cricket.’
At the end of day four (practically a day two of the match), Bangladesh were at precarious 80-3 in the second innings, after New Zealand declared their first innings on 432-6, plundering runs at 5.09 runs per over. The visitors still needs 141 runs to make New Zealand batting for the second time in the match. “It will be embarrassing (to loss the match inside three days)..it’s not something that you can hide,” Tamim said on Monday after the fourth day’s play. “From this position, it’s really tough (to save the Test) but still anything is possible in the game of cricket,”
Tamim is basically relying on the rest of the seven batsmen to see off the fifth and final day in order to save the Test. Bangladesh lost the first Test by an innings and 52 runs margin and a defeat in the Test would give the Kiwis an unassailable 2-0 lead in three-match series.
“We have seven wickets at hands and Mahmudullah Riyad and Liton Das are still to come. It’s important to no loss any wicket in the first session. If we see out the first session or loss just one wicket at maximum, it’s possible to save the Test. Again anything is possible in the game of cricket,” an optimistic Tamim remarked.
The opener who scored 126, 74 and 74 in the first three innings of the series before falling to 4 in this innings of the Test said the batsmen in the dressing looked determined to play long time. “The hope is to bat long, that’s all there is to it. We have lost three wickets and we have a long tail too.
But the day could have been belonged to Bangladesh had they not dropped two catches of Ross Taylor who literally threw the visitors out of the match with a classy and attacking 200 runs knock, which was complemented by Henry Nichols’ equally aggressive 107.
In his just second over of the morning session, pacer Abu Jayed produced those two chances but stand-in skipper Mahmudullah Riyad and young opener Shadman Islam missed those two catches at short extra-cover and second slip.
