Bangladesh finished the second day 126 all-round, behind a mammoth of 395 races
Bangladesh Trail 126 (Yasir 55, Nurul 41, Boult 5-43, Southee 3-28) New Zealand 521 for 6 Dec (Latham 252, Conway 109, Blundell 57 *, Shoriful 2-79) by 395 races
All of those big runs formed the perfect platform for Boult and Southee who tossed the ball on command. Boult got his ninth booty from five wickets, while Southee and Kyle Jamieson shared five.
In the hour before the tea break, the first order from Bangladesh passed to the kaput. Shadman Islam and Najmul Hossain Shanto both fell to Boult in a similar fashion: giving Latham some catches on the second slip. Shadman could have left his, but Shanto had no choice but to make a caught delivery.
Southee represented debutant Mohammad Naim and captain Mominul Haque, both bowling. Naim, playing his first first-class game in two years, dragged an increasing delivery out of the stump on his stumps, opting for a five-ball duck. Mominul missed Southee’s fuller delivery, hitting his leg stump when he tried to throw the ball.
Nurul fell lbw to Southee, having made 41 of 62 balls with four limits. He was enterprising, just like Yasir, but Mehidy Hasan couldn’t quite emulate his useful 47 from the first test. It became Boult’s 300th test wicket when he was knocked down by a delivery tilted around the wicket. Taskin Ahmed gave Jamieson his first wicket when he skied to the middle of the wicket, where Will Young took a good hold.
Yasir hit his 50s soon after, looking a bit of a rush with Bangladesh at eight. He fell to Jamieson while trying to get some big hits under his belt, before Boult took the last wicket of Shoriful Islam.
New Zealand started the day celebrating too. Conway, not coming out overnight on 99, hit a four on the first ball to hit triple digits and continue his great form early in his testing career. He slammed Mehidy for a straight six, except for 12 four, mostly on offside, including some superb cover practices and plenty of runs on the ground and behind the square on the offside. But, on 109, he was eventually exhausted when Mehidy struck with a direct hit plunging blankets.
Nicholls lasted four balls before Ebadot Hossain caught up to him. Shoriful had also fallen behind Daryl Mitchell for lunch, giving Bangladesh some breathing space.
Tom Blundell, however, hit back with 57 of 60 balls in the first hour after lunch. He hit eight fours, while Latham picked up the pace with two sixes from Mominul. But an attempt to get a third over ended in a skied catch for midwicket Yasir. It was perhaps the last time Bangladesh had anything in their favor in the game.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s correspondent in Bangladesh. @ isam84