By Lynn McConnell
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said he was happy with his side’s first outing – a draw against Bangladesh season in Chittagong – in their first game of a new season.New Zealand attempted to breathe some life into the last day when declaring at 287-7 and giving Bangladesh a target of 256 but after slumping to 101-3 they batted out time to end on 173-3.
Both teams had held their nerve with the bat in conditions that were tough and it had been a nice way to start the tour as both teams put ‘their best foot forward’, McCullum said.
“It would have been great to get a win but sometimes you don’t get the win and you look at the performance you put out there and we’re pretty happy with it,” he said.
New Zealand’s batting had been positive but its fielding could be improved, McCullum said.
“We were a bit patchy but we pride ourselves on that so we need to improve, The bowling? I thought the seamers were outstanding right through the Test match in trying conditions and the spinners I thought got better as the game went on,” he said.
“We had a score in mind, with overs in mind, and we got that,” he said.
McCullum said New Zealand were not using their loss of a practice game as an excuse for their performance as most of the team enjoyed good preparation before the tour.
“We’ve had far better preparation this time around than we had a few years ago but you’re always better for a run under your belt and over these past five days we had a good hit out, the guys spent a lot of time out in the field and a lot of guys had a good opportunity to get bat in hand as well as spending some time out under the sun.
“I think we’ll be better for it, we’ve played some good cricket throughout this Test match, so did Bangladesh, and I think in the end a draw was a fair result,” he said.
McCullum was happy with the batting approach of the side, a good foundation had been laid and that allowed them to accelerate at times and they had been happy when pushing the pace for a last day declaration with 250 from 46 overs.
He said Sohag Gazi had batted in a counter-punching mode in scoring his 101 not out and had been outstanding and had put New Zealand on the back foot.
“To get a hat-trick in Test cricket, regardless of where the game is sitting is a fine effort and he thoroughly deserved the man of the match award,” he said of his 6-77 in the second innings. – Sportal via Google news
