Bangladesh on top after Day one of second Test

|| CF DESK ||

After getting bowled out for only 172, Bangladesh fought back with their spinners as New Zealand finished the first day of the second Test with five wickets for 55 runs at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Wednesday. The visitors are trailing by 117 runs.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz drew the first blood as he got the big wicket of Devon Conway cheaply (11). Conway shoulders arms to a delivery anticipating it to rip away, but this skids through to crash into the off stump.

Immediately, Taijul Islam got another opener Tom Latham with a low delivery. Wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan had to stay really low and hardly rise because of the lack of bounce but he does wonderfully well to grab that low-edged ball.

It was the 150th Test wicket at home for Taijul. After that, Taijul scalped his second wicket with Henry Nicholls and downed the Kiwis for 30 for 3.

Nicholls came down the track, was looking to go over mid-on but got too close to the ball, arrowed it straight to Shoriful Islam at mid-on, who dives low to his right and completes the catch.

Miraz dismissed Kane Williamson (13) and Tom Blundell (0) in the span of three balls before the umpires called the 15-wicket action-packed day due to bad light.

Earlier, Mushfiqur Rahim became just the second batsman in Test history to be dismissed for obstructing the field.

Mitchell Santner took three wickets while Ajaz Patel and Glenn Phillips each claimed two for the tourists as they dominated in their bid to level the two-match series.

Mushfiqur top-scored with 35 runs after Bangladesh opted to bat, helping the hosts recover from a dismal 47-4 before his rare dismissal in the second session.

New Zealand appealed against Mushfiqur, who pushed the ball away with his gloves while defending against Kyle Jamieson in the 41st over.

Television umpire Ahsan Raza declared Mushfiqur out after the on-field umpires asked for a check.

England's Leonard Hutton was the only other batsman to be dismissed for obstructing the field in Test cricket, during a match against South Africa at the Oval in 1951.

Mushfiqur's 57-run partnership with Shahadat Hossain helped the hosts recover from the spin demolition of their top order by Santner and Patel.

But after Mushfiqur returned to the pavilion, Phillips dismissed Shahadat (31) and Nurul (seven) to put Bangladesh into further trouble.

Santner took the wicket of Miraz, who made 20 before edging a catch at slip.

The visitors didn’t take time to wrap up the innings as Phillips trapped Taijul (six) lbw and skipper Tim Southee got Shoriful Islam (10) caught behind.

Zakir Hasan and Mahmudul Hasan put on 29 runs in the opening stand before a disastrous five overs saw Bangladesh lose four wickets for just 18 runs.

Santner, who came into the side for Ish Sodhi in the tourists' only change, made the breakthrough when Zakir lofted a catch to Kane Williamson at mid-on after making eight runs.

Patel forced Mahmudul to give a catch to Tom Latham at short leg for 14 in the next over.

Tom Blundell then took a sharp catch behind the stumps as Mominul Haque (five) got an inside edge off Patel's next over.

Santner then trapped in-form skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto leg-before for nine.

Shanto was initially declared not out by the on-field umpire before the decision was reversed on review.

Bangladesh are chasing a first-ever Test series win over the Black Caps after their 150-run victory in Sylhet last week.