Vettori denies Tigers
Daniel Vettori, evoking memories of Inzamamul Haq in Multan and Ricky Ponting in Fatullah, played out of his skin to hand Bangladesh a close three-wicket defeat in the Brac Bank first Test at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday.
The New Zealand captain, who took nine wickets in the match and scored a fifty in the first innings, played a crucial knock of 76 that spanned more than four hours as the visitors reached a record victory target of 317 in the fourth innings.
Ponting and Inzamam had both struck hundreds in similar circumstances to snatch the game away from Bangladesh and Vettori's knock only saw those bitter memories resurface in the port city.
This was New Zealand's highest successful chase away from home, beating their 164-4 in Australia in 1985-86, and their second best chasing score overall. More tellingly, Bangladesh again failed to defend a sizable total in the fourth innings.
But kudos to the Tigers for trying hard on a fifth day wicket that surprisingly remained as true as it was on the first day.
The Black Caps, on 145-2 at the start of the final day's play, took the honours in the first session despite losing the wickets of Aaron Redmond (79 off 237 balls with ten boundaries) and Ross Taylor (nine off 20 balls). Overnight opener Redmond added 17 before edging Shakib Al Hasan to Zunaed Siddiqui at slip. 24 runs later, it was Taylor's turn to depart as he found substitute Mahbubul Alam at point off Mashrafe Bin Mortaza.
New Zealand went to lunch with Vettori and Brendon McCullum intact but the visitors were jolted as early as the second over after the break, when the wicketkeeper-batsman was adjudged leg-before to Abdur Razzak. Television replays later showed that the ball had pitched outside leg-stump and would have missed it as well.
But Vettori found his namesake, Daniel Flynn, as an able partner and the two fought hard as Bangladesh's chances slipped away with every defensive prod.
The Tigers did create a few occasions to appeal and one Shakib over saw a lot of action as, if the players' gesture is to be believed, Mushfiqur Rahim seemed to have dropped something that Vettori edged.
Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful tried everything but the two batsmen had an answer and by tea, it was all over. Both fell in the end, man-of-the-match Vettori to a wild slog off Razzak with his score on 76 off 213 balls while Flynn (49 off 126 deliveries) gave Shakib his ninth wicket in the match.
It was all over when Ashraful, who had earlier dropped Flynn, misfielded a Kyle Mills drive at mid-on.
Razzak was Bangladesh's best bowler on the final day, taking three for 93 while Shakib picked up two and there was one for Mashrafe.
Bangladesh have a lot of positives to take into the next Test starting in Dhaka on Saturday with encouraging performances from Shakib, Mehrab Hossain and Rahim. In the end though, heartache was the recurrent theme as Bangladesh remained the nearly men for one more day.
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