The cloudy and foggy morning in Mirpur saw two contrasting halves of cricket from New Zealand on Day 3 of the 2nd Test. While Kiwi lower-order went into ‘survival mode’, Glenn Phillips adopted Brandon McCullum’s aggressive ‘Bazball’ style to rescue the visitors from another embarrassment against a spin-heavy Bangladesh attack.
New Zealand were reeling at 97/7 in reply to Bangladesh’s 172 before Phillips took the counter-attack approach. The New Zealand all-rounder went on a rampage from other end, scoring 87 runs off 72 balls as Kiwi took a meagre but a moral victory lead of eight runs.
Phillips’ innings was not similar to Cheteshwar Pujara’s ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ knock at Gabba or Ben Stokes’ houdini innings at Headingly. But it was enough to rescue a depleted New Zealand.
Resuming from 55/5 on Day 3, overnight batters Daryl Mitchell (18) and Glenn Phillips had a daunting task on a rank turner.
Both batters put on 49 runs for the sixth wicket and pulled off a brief resurgence before Mitchell was undone by Mehidy Hasan’s stunning catch.
However, the wicket did not halt Phillips’s plan who continued to take on Bangladesh spinners and got to his half-century off 38 balls.
Phillips recieved crucial support from Kyle Jamieson (20) and skipper Tim Southee (14) who displayed a resilient performance with the bat and helped inject some momentum into the innings.
Phillips’s aggressive innings put paid to Bangladesh’s hopes of taking a good lead on a pitch which is likely to choke hold batters further on final two days.
Two quick wickets, including the wicket of Bangladesh skipper Najmul Shanto late on Day 3 has given a glimmer of hope to New Zealand who are trailing 0-1 in the series. But the team will need a similar kind of impact from Phillips with the ball on Day 4 to have a chance of pulling off a heist at Mirpur.
Editor's Pick
Cricket
KL Rahul rested from IND vs ENG ODIs after BCCI assures keeper of ICC Champions Trophy spot: Reports
Top Stories
