Bangladesh walk off the victors for the third day in a row. It’s safe to say now – Bangladesh are on the cusp of doing something sensational on New Zealand soil and it will be up to the hosts to bat out of their skins for a long, long time tomorrow to change that.
At one point, it seemed like they were letting the moment slip – poor use of DRS, poor fielding, and a partnership building. There was enough variable bounce on offer, along with a bit of seam/swing/spin but the slowness of the track meant that the batters could dig in.
Ebadot pulled out what will go down as one of the most iconic spells in Bangladesh cricket if they manage to win from here.
It took a brain fade from Young to Ebadot for the floodgates to open, and the pacer ran riot in that spell, taking out Nicholls and Blundell too, to leave the Black Caps reeling.
Three wickets for zero runs once New Zealand had erased the deficit. The match suddenly looks very, very different because of it.
It’s Ross Taylor, who has one step out the door in this format, and Rachin Ravindra, who has only just got a foot in, who will have to do the bulk of the work for the home side tomorrow.
New Zealand are effectively 17 for 5 now. The lead is almost negligible at the moment and with half the side back in the hut, New Zealand are under the pump.
However, we’ve seen some crazy turnarounds in cricket and given Bangladesh’s self-destructive nature in general, you can’t really call this game so early.
That said, we have to tip our hats off to the way the tourists have played in this game so far. For far too long, they’ve underachieved as a Test side, especially overseas and this game could well be the coming-of-age of the team in this format.
Irrespective of how the final day pans out, a riveting climax is on the cards, and you wouldn’t want to miss it for anything.
It’s days like these that liven up Test cricket.