Sylhet, Dec 3 (FN Agency) New Zealand captain Tim Southee credits key role played by the opposition bowlers and their newly-appointed skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto in Bangladesh’s first Test win. The first game of the two-match Test series saw Bangladesh record their first win at home against New Zealand. The contest ebbed and flowed as the two sides stood apart by just seven runs at the end of the first innings. However, a gritty hundred by Shanto and a six-wicket haul from Taijul Islam saw the home side storm past the visitors. The Kiwi Skipper, Southee, acknowledged the ‘pressure’ Bangladesh bowlers applied consistently that was missing in their own bowling, an ICC report said. “I think you look at the way that the Bangladesh bowlers were able to apply pressure for a long period of time. I think we did it in periods, but we probably didn’t do it for long enough. And then, as a batting unit, you’re always looking at partnerships,” Southee said during the post-match press conference. “I think the Bangladesh bowlers bowled well, and were very accurate. And in the way they bowl and the style they bowl, we know that over here in this part of the world, as the Test moves on, it tends to get harder to bat, it tends to take a little bit more turn and a little bit more variable bounce.
Looking back, you just need a couple of partnerships, and with the ball, we were probably a little bit off in terms of our ability to build pressure for long periods of time,” he said.Although former Test captain Kane Williamson struck a crucial hundred in the first innings, Shanto soon overshadowed the effort with a century of his own on day three. “I think Shanto’s innings was a great innings, and one that obviously a very timely one as well, the situation of the game, so, there’s many things you can look back on and as a side, you’re just looking to improve and hopefully, learn from this and move forward in a few days time,” he said.Southee himself tried to land a counter-punch with an attacking knock of 34 from 24 balls in the second innings but perished to a half-tracker from Islam in the dying minutes of the match.For both teams, it was the first match of the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 cycle. A win for Bangladesh meant that they jumped to the second position on the table, just below Pakistan who have two wins from two games. The second Test between the two sides is scheduled to start on December 6 in Mirpur.