Taijul, Williamson star as match evenly poised after Day 2

The first Test is beautifully poised on a knife's edge after the end of the second day between Bangladesh and New Zealand at Sylhet's International Cricket stadium as the visitors trail by 44 runs with two wickets in hand in the first innings.

Despite Kane Williamson's century, and a 78-run partnership between Williamson and Glenn Phillips for the sixth wicket, Bangladesh struck with wickets late in the day to fight back, especially through the bowling of Taijul Islam who took four wickets for 89 runs in a whopping 30 overs bowled in the day. 

Pitch taking spin already
Although it was just day two of the Test match, the trio of spinners for Bangladesh were in full effect.

Taijul Islam, Nayeem Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz were all used from time to time as Bangladesh looked to take wickets early on.

And that also paid dividends as openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway were dismissed in quick succession to have the Kiwis down 44-2 in the 16th over.

Latham was dismissed for 22 by Taijul as he looked to sweep a delivery going down leg but ended up top-edging it to short fine-leg. 

Conway followed soon after as debutant Shahadat Hossain took a stunning one-handed catch diving to his right at silly point off the bowling Miraz.

Outfield not great
Although the Sylhet cricket stadium is the most scenic one in the country, the outfield has been a mixed bag. 

While it's a fast outfield, there are patches near the boundary where diving has looked dangerous.

Fielders diving could often be seen getting their knees stuck on the ground with parts of the outfield coming off.

New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips also spoke about his hip being sore after diving during fielding on day one.

Shanto's captaincy impresses
Najmul Hossain Shanto looked right at home during his first game as captain of the Test side.

He read the conditions early and brought the spinners into the attack as soon as possible.

Not only that, but he deployed aggressive, close-in fielders, even when the batters looked to be getting set.

When Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls were batting together and building a partnership, he brought Shoriful Islam into the attack and that did the trick to dismiss Nicholls.

Shanto also made the call to bring Mominul Haque into the attack late in the day when Kane Williamson and Glenn Phillips were taking the game away from the home side.

Mominul's part-time spin took the key wicket of Phillips, who was attacking the other bowlers and raced his way to 42. 

Although these are early days, the signs are good from Shanto and as he has expressed his desire to captain Bangladesh in all formats, that could happen if he continues to impress.

Pitch invader
During the second session on day two, a young boy invaded the pitch and had to be escorted back.

Reports later emerged that he was taken to the police and released.

But this is not the first time there has been a case of a pitch invader in Sylhet.

There have been previous such instances and despite there being no lack of security around the ground, this seems to be an issue plaguing Bangladesh's home games in Sylhet.

It's especially surprising given not many fans were present at the ground and it was about 90% empty.

Missed chances
Bangladesh will rue the dropped chances against Kane Williamson as well as not taking a review against Daryl Mitchell.

Mitchell was on just four runs when he slashed at a short and wide delivery that went to the wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan.

Despite an appeal, the umpire didn't budge and replays showed that the ball had taken a nick off the bat.

Had they reviewed, Mitchell's innings of 41 would have been well cut short.

Williamson was dropped twice - once when he was on 64, and later when he was on 70 - off the bowling of Nayeem.

The first one was an easy chance that Taijul dropped at mid-wicket and the second one was by Shoriful where he misjudged the flight of the ball and didn't get underneath it properly.

There were a few close calls for the former New Zealand Test skipper before he was finally cleaned up by Taijul after scoring 104 runs.