Tom Latham’s unbeaten 119-run knock led New Zealand’s strong reply as the hosts finished the third day on 292 for 3 in reply to Bangladesh’s mammoth first innings total of 595/8d.
Needing a good start after conceding such a huge score, New Zealand openers Jeet Raval and Latham shared a fifty-plus stand for the first wicket before Raval returned to pavilion after scoring 27. The left-handed batsman, who had made an impressive debut against Pakistan last year, tried to play a rising delivery from Kamrul Islam Rabbi without any footwork and edged it to wicketkeeper who made no mistake. The visitors’ hopes of making further inroads were soon quashed by a brilliant counter-attacking batting display by Kane Williamson. The skipper raced to 53 off only 54 balls with the help of eight hits to the fence before edging a brilliant delivery from Taskin Ahmed to the wicketkeeper.
Ross Taylor, making a comeback to the Test team after an eye surgery, continued to bat in the same manner as New Zealand scored 121 runs in only 25 overs during the second session. On the other end, Latham was more than happy to play second fiddle to his aggressive partners. The 74-run partnership between Latham and Taylor (40) came to an end shortly after the tea break when he pulled a ball straight to Mahmudullah at deep square leg.
The wicket did not affect Latham as he continued to thread the gaps with utmost precision and scored his sixth Test century. His partner Henry Nicholls did not try to play aggressive cricket either and remained unbeaten on 35 off 96 balls.
Earlier, Bangladesh added 71 runs to their overnight score of 542 for 7 before declaring. Sabbir Rahman helped his team pile more agony on the New Zealand bowlers by scoring 54.
The hosts are still 303 runs behind Bangladesh’s first innings total and the visitors will hope to take some early wickets on the fourth day to cause an upset.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 595/8 decl. (Shakib Al Hasan 217, Mushfiqur Rahim 159; Neil Wagner 4-151) lead New Zealand 292/3 (Tom Latham 119*, Kane Williamson 53; Kamrul Islam Rabbi 2-53) by 303 runs.