A broken bat and a fond hope

For any batsman, it's the bat that is the piece of equipment they value most and look after meticulously. During yesterday's net session, Mehedi Hasan Miraz was batting at and played a cover drive off a local net bowler. Oblivious of the fact that the toe end of the bat was broken and a piece of willow had gone clean out of the net, Mehedi was preparing to face the next ball with a broken bat. It was Rubel Hossain, who was sitting outside the nets, shouted out to Mehedi and said: "Are you going to keep batting with a broken bat or do you want it to be fully damaged?"

Mehedi finally realised that his bat was broken and looked pretty disappointed. Senior batsman Mahmudullah Riyad tried to console Miraz and said: "I understand how it feels when your bat is broken; don't worry, you will get a new one soon."

A dejected Mehedi was however still in shock and finally changed his bat and continued batting.

TAMIM'S TON TARGET

It took 27 innings for Tamim Iqbal to strike his maiden ODI century against Ireland back in 2008 and it took another 33 innings to smash his second hundred. The 29-year-old, who has lifted his game to the next level over the past few years, now holds the record for the most hundreds by a Bangladeshi across all formats. But the dashing left-hander, who just finished his batting session at the nets yesterday, was sharing his disappointment of not yet having scored a hundred in New Zealand.

"I have never scored a hundred in New Zealand -- I was dismissed in the 60s and 70s against them," Tamim said. When told that he should score a hundred here this time he said: "Yes, you are right. I should score a hundred in New Zealand. Let's see, you never know, maybe this time InshaAllah."