Vettori pushes Bangladesh towards big defeat

Bangladesh - Daniel Vettori spun New Zealand to the brink of a crushing victory over Bangladesh in the second and final Test at the M.A. Aziz Stadium here on Thursday.

The left-arm spinner took his second 10-wicket haul in Tests as Bangladesh reached 210-8 after being asked to follow-on on the third day. They were out for just 182 earlier in the day in reply to New Zealand's 545-6 declared.

Mohammad Rafique (30) and Tapash Baisya (15) were the not out batsmen at close.

Vettori extracted both turn and bounce on a pitch favouring spinners to finish with 6-70 in the first innings and was ably supported by off-spinner Paul Wiseman (3-68) as New Zealand took a massive 363-run first innings lead.

With the the visiting side enforcing the follow-on a little after lunch, Vettori came back to demolish the batting once again with a haul of 4-77, which included the scalp of Mohammad Ashraful, who got a 'pair' of zeroes.

Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud's fighting 51 off 87 deliveries, in which he hit four boundaries, helped stretch the match to the fourth day. He played on a delivery from Jacob Oram to give the pacer his first wicket of the match.

Bangladesh have to score 153 more runs to make New Zealand bat again.

Earlier in the day, Bangladesh, overnight 82-3, were tormented by Vettori and Wiseman and could only add 100 runs in their first innings.

Javed Omar (58) was the only one to provide resistance, striking five boundaries off 151 deliveries before he was caught by Matthew Sinclair at silly-point off Wiseman.

Omar, 45 overnight, swept the spinners repeatedly as he got to his fifth half-century in Tests and also crossed the 1,000-run mark during his defiant knock.

The 27-year-old opener became only the second Bangladesh batsman to do so after unavailable regular skipper Habibul Bashar, who has got 2,079 runs in 30 Tests.

Bangladesh started the day badly as Ashraful (zero) tried to loft only the second delivery and gave a simple catch to Nathan Astle at mid-on off Wiseman.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin