Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
Taijul Islam picked up his second 10-wicket haul in Tests to take Bangladesh to a historic 150-run win over New Zealand on the final day of their first Test in Sylhet on Saturday.
This is Bangladesh’s second-ever win over New Zealand and the first at home against them.
This is also their first Test win at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, and 19th Test win overall, 13th at home.
New Zealand started the day on 113-7, and Bangladesh took an hour and a half to bundle them out for 181 as Taijul picked two more wickets, and Nayeem Hasan picked another.
That took Taijul’s tally for the match to 10 and saw him awarded Player of the Match.
After setting New Zealand a target of 332, Bangladesh were all over them in the fourth day, picking up seven wickets.
On the fifth day, the Blackcaps’ biggest hope was Daryl Mitchell, who was unbeaten on 44. He then went on to pick up his fifty on the final day but could not last too long as he tried to sweep Nayeem but only managed to find Taijul at fine leg to perish for 58.
Tim Southee and Ish Sodhi then kept Bangladesh waiting for almost nine overs as they duo added 46 runs for the ninth wicket, with the former taking on the Bangladesh bowlers as he scored 34 off 24 balls.
However, that attacking mindset brought his demise as he tried to pull a short-ish delivery from Taijul but could only find Zakir Hasan at short mid-wicket.
Sodhi, who played 91 balls in the final innings, was acting as a thorn for the Tigers as he was playing with composure and calm.
In came Taijul again and got one to bounce, leading to Sodhi edging it to Zakir at silly point to bundle out for 151.
