Rain washes out third day’s play in Christchurch

The third day of the second and final Test between New Zealand and Bangladesh was washed out without a ball bowled on Sunday (January 22) after persistent rain in Christchurch. That left New Zealand on a tricky 260 for 7 in its first innings, 29 runs behind Bangladesh's 289.

The umpires waited until the start of the evening session before calling play off the weather showed no sign of clearing up. The good news, though, was that the forecast for the next two days is bright and play will start 30 minutes early on both days to make up for some of the lost time.

On Saturday, too, rain played a role, forcing an early end with Henry Nicholls and Tim Southee unbeaten on 56 and 4 respectively after Shakib Al Hasan stopped the New Zealand domination with three wickets in quick succession.

New Zealand went into the final session of the second day at 192 for 4, and the fifth-wicket pair of Nicholls and Mitchell Santner extended their stand to 75 runs when Shakib dismissed Santner for 29. Shakib then hit BJ Watling’s stumps with a straighter one and followed it up with the scalp of Colin de Grandhomme, who played for the turn that wasn’t there and was bowled as well. Shakib’s figures at the end of the day read 7-0-32-3.

Before Shakib changed the script, New Zealand looked assured in its approach as Tom Latham and Ross Taylor put on 106 runs for the third wicket. Taylor was on 77 and in sight of his 17th century, but minutes before the tea break, he flicked Mehedi Hasan to mid-wicket for Taijul Islam, the substitute fielder, to take a simple catch. Latham scored 68 before he was caught behind off Taskin Ahmed.

On the first day, a stroke-filled 86 at the top of the order from Soumya Sarkar, Shakib’s 59 and Nurul Hasan’s 47 had guided Bangladesh to a competitive total.