Bangladesh wicket-keeper batter Mushfiqur Rahim achieved an unwanted record as he became the second batter ever to be dismissed ‘obstructing the field’ in Test cricket. The incident happened on Day 1 of the second Test match against New Zealand in Dhaka when he pushed the ball away from the stumps with his hand after defending a delivery from Kyle Jamieson. After the day’s play, spinner Mehidy Hasan defended Mushfiqur during the press conference and said that it was not intentional from the veteran cricketer. He also mentioned the ‘timed out’ dismissal of Sri Lanka batter Angelo Matthews in the Cricket World Cup 2023 while speaking about Mushfiqur’s incident on Wednesday.
“Look this one was not intentional, it just happened with the flow. Nobody wants to get out knowingly. There are lot of things going around at the back of the mind during different situations in a game. In the World Cup, we got a timed-out dismissal against a Sri Lankan batter in our favour but today what happened with Mushfiq bhai, it all happened in a flow” he said at the press conference.
“When I am batting after playing a shot and when the ball is coming near the stumps, have to make quick decisions about what you can do and what you can’t. Certainly, he didn’t do that intentionally.”
Mehidy Hasan and Taijul Islam shared five wickets between them to help Bangladesh claw their way back into contention with New Zealand struggling at 55-5.
An astonishing 15 wickets fell in the first day’s play in Dhaka, with the hosts all out for just 172 in an innings where Mushfiqur Rahim became just the second batsman in Test history to be dismissed for obstructing the field.
Mehidy and Taijul then cut a swathe through New Zealand in the final session before bad light prompted an early finish.
Mehidy scalped Devon Conway (11), Kane Williamson (13) and Tom Blundell (0) in between Taijul’s dismissal of Tom Latham (4) and Henry Nicholls (1) to obliterate the tourists’ early advantage.
“We believed that we could make life difficult for them if we bowled in the right areas,” Mehidy said after the day’s play.
“We struggled against their spinners. We know these conditions pretty well, so that gave our bowlers the confidence that we could take more advantage from this pitch.”
Daryl Mitchell was batting on 12 alongside Glenn Phillips on five when stumps were drawn at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, with nine overs remaining.
Mitchell Santner and Phillips earlier took 3-65 and 3-31 respectively after the hosts opted to bat, while Ajaz Patel claimed 2-54 for the tourists as they dominated in their bid to level the two-match series.
(With AFP inputs)
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