Short-ball specialist Neil Wagner yesterday engineered an innings victory over Bangladesh in what New Zealand called “an ideal two days” in the rain-shortened second Test to wrap up the series with a game to spare.
After the first two days were washed out, the match finished in the first session of the final day in Wellington as New Zealand completed a fifth consecutive series win for the first time.
In the face of Wagner’s relentless bouncer barrage, Bangladesh were all out for 209 to give New Zealand victory by an innings and 12 runs to go with their innings and 52-run win in the first Test.
Photo: AFP
“It was an ideal two days,” said Tim Southee, who took over as New Zealand captain after Kane Williamson left for treatment on an injured shoulder. “With the amount of time that was lost through rain, a lot of people thought it was going to be tough to win a Test inside three days, but we knew there was always going to be a little bit of assistance in the wicket.”
“The batters need a lot of credit for the way they put us in such a strong position yesterday that we only needed to bat once. I think that was the backbone of another Test win for us,” he said.
Of the 20 Bangladesh wickets to fall, Wagner took nine, including 5-45 in the second innings.
After Ross Taylor’s 200 steered New Zealand to 432-6 declared in their first innings, a lead of 221, Bangladesh yesterday resumed at 80-3.
They advanced to 112 before Trent Boult removed Soumya Sarkar for 28 and Wagner made sure the remaining wickets fell quickly. Only captain Mahmudullah Riyad and Mohammed Mithun, who scored 67 and 47 respectively, offered serious resistance.
“We didn’t commit and back ourselves,” said Mahmudullah, adding they had discussed “the Wagner factor” before arriving in New Zealand and he believed his batsmen “have the skill level” to handle the short ball.
“We were handling him well, but then we gave it away. We have to bat with more guts for longer periods. A number of our batsmen are playing half-hearted shots, or we are not committed. We are in two minds whether to play a shot or not,” Mahmudullah said. “You need to back yourself. If you want to attack, you should know how you want to cope with their bouncer theory.”
The third and final Test starts in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Saturday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier