Positives in defeat
Bangladesh's nine-wicket defeat in Christchurch brought an end to a terrible tour of New Zealand. Eight matches, eight losses. But even in this bleakness there were small rays of light. Surprisingly, they came during the Test leg of the tour, a format the Tigers were supposed to fail miserably at.
The pace attack – the combined experience of the trio in Wellington was two Tests, both played by Kamrul Islam Rabbi. Yet, Subhashis Roy, Taskin Ahmed and Kamrul bowled admirably to share six wickets to get the Kiwis all out. In the second Test Rubel came in for Subhashis and bowled at good pace, Taskin was unlucky with dropped catches while Kamrul again led the way.
Shakib Al Hasan – He infuriates and delights in equal measure, but there is no denying the impact he has had on this Test series. Not only did he record the highest score for Bangladesh in Tests, he also scored the most runs for Bangladesh with 284 (second on the list for both sides) and the most wickets with six.
The partnership – This tour will soon be a thing of the past, but one stat will remain for some time. 359 runs were shared for the fifth wicket between Mushfiqur Rahim (159) and Shakib (217) in the first innings of the first Test. It was the highest partnership for any wicket by a visiting team in New Zealand and held a promise of further Bangladeshi heroics, which eventually turned out to be a false one.
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