Notes from the Oval #4

Wow, just wow!

Ebadot Hossain, we salute you. Photo / Getty Images

So here we are after four days of what could be a very short test summer and the question we’re contemplating is this: How can New Zealand save a test against Bangladesh?

If you picked that as your day-five poser, then you’re smarter than I am because I only booked four nights at the inn and find myself heading home slightly perplexed and a little embarrassed.

The convenient scapegoat would be the strip of closely mown grass at Bay Oval that is probably as close as you’re going to get to an antipodean Dhaka, but that doesn’t do Bangladesh anywhere near enough credit and it also lets the Black Caps out of the dog-box way too easily.

The visitors have looked the far more engaged side throughout, which is a testament to their attitude and their leadership. By contrast, New Zealand looked sloppy in the first innings, flat in the field and as confused as a caveman with an iPad in their second bat.