Neil Wagner finished with figures of 4-28 off 13 overs
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Neil Wagner carved through Bangladesh’s batting line-up with a four-wicket haul to give New Zealand the upper hand on the third day of the second Test in Wellington.
After the first two days were washed out due to persistent rain, a toss was finally held and New Zealand elected to bowl first.
However, it was Bangladesh who gained the upper hand early on as Tamim Iqbal and Shadman Islam amassed a 75-run partnership before Shadman was caught by Ross Taylor at first slip off the bowling of Colin de Grandhomme for 27.
Tamim and Mominul Haque added 44 runs to the score, during which Tamim surpassed his fifty, before Mominul was caught behind off the bowling of Neil Wagner for 15.
Mohammad Mithun suffered the same fate after scoring three runs, while Tamim went on to score 74, which came off 114 balls and included 10 boundaries, before he was caught by Tim Southee at square leg off the bowling of Wagner.
Bangladesh began to collapse after Tamim’s dismissal as they lost wickets in a hurry.
With Trent Boult carving through their lower order, Bangladesh were bowled out for 211.
Wagner was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Boult snapped up three, and Southee, De Grandhomme and Matt Henry chipped in with one wicket apiece.
Trailing by 211 runs, New Zealand lost opener Tom Latham in the fifth over as he was caught behind off the bowling of Abu Jayed for four runs.
Jeet Raval, who opened the batting with Latham, only scored three runs before he was caught by Soumya Sarkar at cover off the bowling of Jayed.
However, just as Taylor and captain Kane Williamson started to steady the innings with an unbeaten 30-run partnership, the rain came and ended things for the day.
Taylor finished on 19, which came off 13 balls and included four boundaries, while Williamson remained undefeated on 10, which came off 17 deliveries and included two boundaries.
Jayed was the only bowler to take any wickets.
New Zealand ended day three on 38/2 and will continue batting on Monday at 10:30 local time or 21:30 GMT (the previous day).