Rain washes out first day

Bangladesh v New Zealand First day washed out

No play was possible on the first day of the second Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand in Mirpur because of incessant rain. Umpires Daryl Harper and Asoka de Silva and match referee Javagal Srinath inspected the pitch before calling off play at 12.30pm local time.

Play is expected to start half an hour early, at 9am, on Sunday but the possibility of catching up on the time lost is unlikely with heavy showers forecast over the next two days. The Mirpur game will decide the two-Test series after New Zealand won the first one in Chittagong.

New Zealand received a blow to their plans for a series whitewash when Jacob Oram was ruled out because of a back injury. Grant Elliott, the allrounder who made his debut against England in Napier in March, has replaced him in the squad.

New Zealand chased down 317 to win the first Test but they were given a scare when Bangladesh bowled them out for 171 in the first innings, with Shakib Al Hasan taking career-best figures of 7 for 36. But Daniel Vettori scored half-centuries in both innings and picked up nine wickets to take the visitors to a three-wicket win. New Zealand won the preceding ODI series 2-1.

New Zealand: (likely) 1 Aaron Redmond, 2 Jamie How, 3 Jesse Ryder, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Brendon McCullum (wk), 6 Daniel Flynn, 7 Grant Elliott, 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Iain O'Brien, 11 Jeetan Patel.

Bangladesh: (likely) 1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Junaid Siddique, 3 Rajin Saleh, 4 Mohammad Ashraful (capt), 5 Naeem Islam, 6 Mehrab Hossain jnr, 7 Shakib Al Hasan, 8 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 9 Mashrafe Moratza, 10 Abdur Razzak, 11 Shahadat Hossain.