New Zealand and Bangladesh drew the rain-affected second Test on Wednesday when both captains agreed to halt the contest 40 minutes before the scheduled close of play on the final day, handing the tourists a 1-0 series victory.
New Zealand had reached 79-1 in their second innings, a lead of 172, after Bangladesh had earlier narrowly avoided following on to dash the visitors’ hopes of securing an unlikely win in a match that lost more than three days to the weather
Resuming after tea on 34-1, New Zealand, who won the first Test by three wickets in Chittagong last week, added 45 runs in 19 overs as the contest petered out into a draw.
Opener Aaron Redmond (30) and Jesse Ryder (39) were unbeaten at the close after Bangladesh had limped past the follow-on target of 162.
Bangladesh were lifted by all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (49) and bowler Mashrafe Mortaza (48), who batted cautiously to salvage the home side’s innings with a seventh-wicket partnership of 78 to overcome a fine bowling display by Daniel Vettori.
New Zealand skipper Vettori finished with figures of 5-66, his 17th five-wicket haul in Tests, and Iain O’Brien chipped in with 3-31 as Bangladesh reached 169-9 after lunch before the home side declared 93 runs behind the tourists.
Spinner Jeetan Patel had secured the day’s first breakthrough, trapping Mehrab Hossain (7) lbw while pace bowler O’Brien had Mushfiqur Rahim (7) caught behind by Brendon McCullum.
In between, Vettori removed opener Tamim Iqbal (24) and the home side did well to recover from 44-6 early in the morning session. — Reuters