Mominul Haque-lead Bangladesh scripted history as they managed to beat the World Test Championship winners New Zealand by eight wickets on the final day of the first Test at Mount Maunganui. The winning captain Mominul Haque proceeded to praise his side for ending the World Test Champions’ winning run of 17 matches at home. The outcome is certainly one of the biggest triumphs for Bangladesh. During the post-match presentation, Haque spoke about his team’s ‘unbelievable’ performance against the Blackcaps.
Mominul Haque opens up on the iconic victory
A sleepless Mominul was under pressure before the start of play on Wednesday but later hailed his side’s performance for doing well in all departments. “I can’t describe it, it’s unbelievable. I couldn’t sleep yesterday because of the pressure,” Mominul told reporters after the match got over.
Mominul Haque said: “Bangladesh had gone into the match focusing on the process rather than the result,” he added. “You have to have a clear mindset, before playing anywhere. If you’re going out of the subcontinent, and you think to yourself that ‘it will be tough,’ then it will be tough. We didn’t focus too much on the result of the test matches, we tried to focus on the process.”
It was seamer Ebadot Hossain who became the stand-out performer and took many by surprise. He took a career-best 6-46 as the visitors dismissed New Zealand for 169 early on day five and then knocked off the 40 runs for victory for the loss of two wickets. It was Bangladesh’s first win in any format of the game in New Zealand and gave them a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
The Bangladesh captain also praised the performance of Ebadot, saying he had worked really well over the last two or three years. The tall right-armer, who snaps to attention and salutes when he takes a wicket, saluted twice when he bowled Taylor for 40. Then he dismissed Kyle Jamieson to leave New Zealand 160-7. Shoriful pulled off a brilliant diving catch at mid-wicket to complete the second dismissal.
The second test match between the sides is set to take place at at Hagley Oval in Christchurch, starting on Sunday.
