'We have an opportunity to fight harder and get early wicket': Wagner
Wagner took both the wickets and gave the batters a tough time. But they hung on and made sure too much damage was not done. The left-arm seamer heaped praise on the Bangladeshi batters for their fight and grit.
After a superb performance with the ball in the morning session of the second day, Bangladesh tightened their grip in the Mount Maunganui Test thanks to fifties from Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Najmul Hossain Shanto. Despite some encouraging bowling especially from Neil Wagner, the Black Caps could not take more than two wickets before the close of play.
Wagner took both the wickets and gave the batters a tough time. But they hung on and made sure too much damage was not done. The left-arm seamer heaped praise on the Bangladeshi batters for their fight and grit.
"Full credit to the Bangladesh batsmen. They played really well. They showed a lot of patience. They showed a bit of fight. It is a tough graft out there. It is just a good days' hard and tough Test cricket. I think we fought really hard, but couldn't really string together enough to create pressure from both ends. Everyone tried really hard but it wasn't to be our day. But it is Test cricket: we have an opportunity tomorrow to fight harder, and get early wickets," he stated.
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"Bangladesh have been pretty tough opponents whenever they have come here. They have always played well in our conditions. The likes of Shakib play a different brand of cricket. They come out quite aggressively, play a few more shots. It creates an opportunity for us to take wickets, as well. They are quality players and have been around for quite some time," he added.
Joy and Shanto added 104 for the second wicket before the latter got out. Shanto got a hostile welcome from Wagner as he tested him with bouncers. Joy could have been dismissed leg-before off Wagner had New Zealand taken a review. But the duo overcame those tough phases and scored runs to give Bangladesh a good platform.
"The younger guys today played phenomenally. I thought they played patiently. They didn't really give too many opportunities. They hung in there. They were prepared to dig in. They left the ball quite a lot. It made us ask more questions, and take wickets. It gave them the opportunity to score. I thought that they played really well. Full credit to them. I thought when the ball was there to be scored, they scored. They also left well and defended well," Wagner said.
