Southee pleased to win Dhaka scrap on 'probably the worst wicket I've come across'
Shanto has no complaints about the pitch, where 36 wickets fell in 178.1 overs, since it gave Bangladesh an advantage – it’s just that “we didn’t bat well”
Mohammad Isam09-Dec-2023
Ajaz Patel picked up six wickets in the Bangladesh second innings after opening the bowling•AFP via Getty Images
New Zealand beat Bangladesh by four wickets in Dhaka to square their two-Test series, but Tim Southee still called the pitch the “worst” he has seen in his career.Thirty batters were dismissed by spinners as 36 wickets fell in the Test in just 178.1 overs of action – the third-lowest number of balls bowled in a Test (1069) for that many wickets to fall – and Southee felt the pitch was far too much in favour of bowlers, making it an uneven contest.”It is probably the worst wicket I’ve come across in my career,” Southee said. “The balance between bat and ball was heavily favoured into the bowler’s hands. I think for the match to be over in 170 overs sort of reflects that. So, for our guys to scrap away and then come away with the win was a big pleasure.Related
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“I think it was just a scrappy Test match. It was obviously a tough wicket. Runs were hard to come by, and just those little moments and partnerships throughout were crucial, whereas in other matches, I guess when conditions are a little bit more even between bat and ball, they don’t get noticed as much.”Najmul Hossain Shanto, however, was fine with the pitch and happy that Bangladesh had tried to make the most of their home advantage after winning the first Test in Sylhet.”When we play Tests, we are not here to improve. This is not a place for practice. We are trying to win the Test,” Shanto said. “It is important that we prepare to win the Test, but we should definitely take this type of advantage. We can prepare in first-class cricket by trying out good wickets. We should prepare wickets like these and wickets like away conditions in NCL [National Cricket League] or BCL [Bangladesh Cricket League].”Asked if the pitch in Sylhet for the first Test, where play went into the final day, gave the team more of a “home advantage”, Shanto pointed out that bowlers had struggled there.”It wasn’t a very helpful wicket for bowlers in Sylhet. Bowlers had to work hard for their wickets. There was a bit of help for both bowlers and batters,” he said. “We didn’t bat well in Dhaka. We should have scored 230-240 runs in the first innings. The wicket seemed bad because we got 172. New ball was a challenge, but that’s also true anywhere around the world. It wasn’t anything different here, but we could have avoided this situation if we batted better in the first innings.”