Bangladesh clinch maiden Test win against New Zealand at home
Bangladesh clinched the first match of their two-Test series against New Zealand as they won by 150 runs on the final day at the Sylhet International Stadium on Saturday.
This is the first Test win for Bangladesh at home against New Zealand and after beating them in their famous Mount Maunganui win now the Tigers made a double against the kiwis.
This is also the biggest margin of win in terms of runs for Bangladesh against a side other than Zimbabwe and Afghanistan and Taijul Islam became the first Bangladeshi to get a 10-fer in a match against New Zealand.
With that win Najmul Hossain became the fourth Bangladeshi after Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib al Hasan and Litton Das to win a Test match in captaincy debut.
This win also gives Bangladesh valuable points in the World Test Championship, whose new cycle commenced with this very much.
The win with so many achievements, however, came after one and a half hour in the fifth morning as the New Zealand tail showed a rearguard action.
Resuming on 113-7, chasing 332, New Zealand lost their last recognized batter Darryl Mitchell when he was caught by Taijul for 58 while attempting a sweep against Naeem Hasan.
At 132-8 it looked all but over. However, captain Tim Southee joined Ish Sodhi and started counterattacking.
He scored 34 off 24 before he became the fifth victim of Taijul. He struck four sixes in his innings and made sure now he has hit sixes against all the Test teams he has played against.
Taijul got his sixth wicket when Sodhi gave silly-point fielder Zakir Hossain an easy catch and the crowd was elated.
After winning the toss on the first day, Bangladesh posted 310 runs in the first innings thanks to 86 runs of Mahmudul Hasan.
In reply, New Zealand scored 317 thanks to 104 from Kane Willamson and took a slender seven-run lead.
Bangladesh, however, accumulated 338 in their second innings thanks to 105 runs from skipper Najmul and gave a difficult target of 332.
The win for the Najmul-led young side looks even greater when one considers Bangladesh played without their experienced campaigners like Shakib al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Litton Das, Taskin Ahmed and Ebadot Hossain.
Shakib and Tamim were also absent at Mount Maunganui but the latter three played key roles in that away victory.