Trent Boult celebrates with his teammates after taking a wicket against Bangladesh in the second Test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
Highlight
- Tom Latham scored 252, Devon Conway scored another century.
- Boult took 300 Test wickets and became the second fastest New Zealander to achieve this.
After a dominant batting performance to declare the first innings at 521/6, New Zealand wreaked havoc with the ball to bundle out Bangladesh for just 126 in their first innings during the ongoing Second Test at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
Earlier during the day, Tom Latham scored 252, Devon Conway scored another century and Ross Taylor Probably played his last Test innings for the Kiwis.
Trent Boult He took 5-43 including his 300th Test wicket to join Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori and his new ball partner Tim Southee Among New Zealand players who have taken 300 wickets in Tests. The milestone came in Boult’s 75th Test at an average of 27.35, as well as his ninth five-wicket haul in Tests.
“It certainly means a lot,” Boult said. “I think as a team we’re not all about milestones, but it certainly means a lot to join a particular club, membership is hard to get.”
Latham declared New Zealand’s first innings halfway mid-season on the second day in Christchurch, and Boult and Southee made their way through Bangladesh’s top-order in the seventh over to trail the tourists 11-4 – reducing their Test low to 43. challenged.
Yasir Ali showed the courage to complete the first Test half-century and was dismissed for 55 runs just before the stumps.
Latham took two of those four early wickets at second slip to maintain his outsized influence on the match, which represented a drastic turn in the fortunes of the series when Bangladesh defeated world Test champions New Zealand by eight wickets in the series-opener. Winning and defeating.
Latham’s second double century in Tests was a mammoth innings that began when he lost the toss on Sunday for the sixth time as New Zealand’s stand-in captain. It ended the session at 552 minutes or 5 1/2, with Latham later sharing 148 for the first wicket with Will Young and 215 for the second wicket with Conway.
Latham scored milestones with metronomic regularity – his 50 off 65 balls, his century in 133 balls and 150 off 199 balls – before he went on to be 186 not out on the first day.
His shot-making was fluent and varied. When the ball was new and hard and Bangladesh short pitched, they put up a fence behind the point boundary. When the bowling was full, he would go to the off side or swing the ball through mid-wicket.
He completed a double century in 305 balls at the start of the second day. But Latham made a rare error when he called his partner for a quick single as the pair was gaining momentum and Conway, who seemed impregnable, was beaten with a direct hit at the non-striker’s end.
Conway started the day with an unbeaten 99 and admitted to being nervous overnight, but showed nothing when he took a single off the first ball of the day and completed his third century in five Tests. Conway now has 623 runs in nine Test innings at an average of 69.22.
His dismissal brought Taylor to the crease in what is likely to be his last innings in Test cricket. The 37-year-old batsman will retire from Tests after the match in which he equaled Daniel Vettori’s record of 112 Test matches for New Zealand.
Given the position New Zealand are in, there is little chance of Taylor to bat again in the match.
He went to the crease to a loud applause, including from the fielding team, and went on to make 28 runs after similar cheers. New Zealand’s next batsman, Henry Nichols, waited in the dressing room to be allowed to make his final move from the crease, as the only recipient of the crowd’s applause.
The end of any great career in sport provides a moment of poignancy and shared reflection.
Taylor has been a member of the New Zealand Test team for almost 15 years and his actions, one of the greatest ever achieved by any New Zealand player, are etched in the memories of all New Zealand cricket fans.
If he does not bat again in this match he will end up with 7,683 Test runs, more than any other New Zealander, although this record will soon fall. Kane Williamson (7,272).
He has 19 Test centuries, second only to Williamson, and is the only New Zealander to play 100 matches in all three international formats.
His highest score and most memorable innings was his 290 against Australia in Perth in 2015 when he batted for almost 10 hours against one of the best bowling attacks in the world.
– AP. with inputs from
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