Dhaka – Opener Soumya Sarkar made a maiden half century on Friday in an unbroken partnership of 90 for the third wicket which helped Bangladesh recover from the loss of two early wickets and reach 128-2 at lunch on the first day of the second test against New Zealand.Sarkar joined the Bangladesh lineup at Hagley Oval in one of four changes — three forced by injury — to the team that lost the first test of the series by seven wickets at Wellington. He replaced Imrul Kayes who has a leg injury while batsman Nazmul Hossain and wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan were named to make their test debuts.Nazmul replaced Mominul Haque who has a rib injury and Nurul took over the gloves from captain Mushfiqur Rahim who is recovering from concussion. Tamim Iqbal, one of two batsmen out in the opening session, assumed the captaincy in Mushfiqur’s absence.Trent Boult and Tim Southee took a wicket each, reducing Bangladesh to 38-2 before Sarkar and Shakib Al Hasan staged a strong recovery. Sarkar was 64 not out at lunch and Shakib, who made 217 in the first innings of the first test — the highest score by a Bangladesh batsman in tests — was 39.New Zealand won the toss and bowled and there was some fractional movement early on. Tamim (5) was out caught down the leg side off a short ball from Southee which he could have left. The ball rose just above hip height and Tamim flicked at it, gloving a catch to wicketkeeper B.J. Watling.Mahmudullah, promoted one place to No. 3 in the order, sought to play his shots from the outset, struck three fours in reaching 19 but was then caught off an inside edge by Watling off Boult.Bangladesh scored throughout the first session at 4.7 runs per over.Sarkar reached his first half century in four tests from 54 balls with seven fours.UNB
