Fleming in his 87th Test appearance, surpassed Sir Richard Hadlee's 86-Test record and also crossed Martin Crowe's collection of most Test runs (5,444). To top it all off, he chalked up his eighth Test hundred with a chanceless unbeaten 137 in the unfinished first innings of the Black Caps.

Fleming, who now has 5,501 runs to his name said he had the record in his mind all along and it meant a lot to have gone past someone of Crowe's stature.

"I'm obviously very proud. I know that he (Crowe) would have scored some more runs if injury had not cut his career short and he would have done it at a better rate. We all speak about what a great player he was and he is an inspiration to me.

"It feels really good. It's a continuation of my form. I'm playing now in the way I want to play," said Fleming after the match.

So what are his next targets?

"100 Tests would be something pretty special. But at the moment I want to get as many hundreds as I can and rewrite the records. If you see Martin's record and my record you'll see that he's got 17 hundreds and 18 fifties while I have eight and 35. So in the latter part of my career if I can make up for the lost ground, I will be pretty pleased.

"The great regret I have is that I did not have the skills to convert fifties into hundreds as a younger player. If I had turned even a third of those into hundreds, then I would have some pretty good numbers by my name," said Fleming.

For someone who was once infamous for the inability to score hundreds, Fleming thought his turnaround in career is something the struggling Bangladesh players can take inspiration from.

"I was a player who had the experience of not getting hundreds that much when I first played international cricket. I guess a lot of these (Bangladeshi) players are playing top level sides and learning their trade and that can be tough. I think patience is the key word. Understanding more about yourself rather than the game situation where often you play at one tempo and push yourself too hard. You got to respect what situation your body's going to be and where your mind is."

On his effortless innings, Fleming said it was adjustment and guts that did the trick.

"What I've learned here is that when you can force the field to be pushed back, it's a lot easier to take singles than hitting big shots. So it was about taking calculated risks and showing a lot of heart and it worked."

The Black Caps captain believed that the match was theirs to dictate from here on.

"We could not believe that there was so much turn in the first session. But the pitch has become more consistent now and we are very happy with our position. If we can get another 150-200 runs tomorrow, it will be a very hard game to lose. I would like to bowl in the last session tomorrow."

Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud did not turn up at the end of the day's briefing saying he was too tired.