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Mehrab's timely knock

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong
Just like he allowed no good opportunity go through to the wicketkeeper. Mehrab Hossain showed the mood hold on to a
chance to cement his place among the Tigers once again.
Playing in his first Test since making debut in Sri Lanka last year, the left-hander batted with a lot of confidence and determination against the New Zealand attack from the word go while most of his colleagues struggled to get the ball off the Chittagong Divisional Stadium square.
It could have been curtains for the home side who won the vital toss yesterday morning and decided to bat first on a flat deck that provided little for sideways movement and was too slow to spin.
But even on favourable conditions and with the visitors under a blazing sun, the first session yielded only 34 runs. Then came a break and with that came three quick wickets for the Black Caps and Mehrab had 44 for four in his hands with another new batsman at the crease.
His first move was to attack the spinners, Jeetan Patel in particular, and he did it with minimum risk. He followed the golden rule -- keep
the ball on the ground - and thrived.
The young left-hander smashed six off his eight boundaries off the New Zealand off-spinner who had a poor day that began with Tamim Iqbal being dropped off his bowling at short leg in his first over.
"(Jeetan) Patel's deliveries were coming on to the bat nicely and it was difficult for (Daniel) Vettori to get much purchase out of the wicket on the first day," said Mehrab.
"The wicket is pretty flat and we realised that pretty soon. From then on it was just a case of playing the ball on its merit," he added.
Mehrab knew what was there on menu as he made sure the pacemen, both of whom relied heavily on line and length, were dealt with respect
Iain O'Brien, who took two wickets on the day, gave Mehrab one testing over late in the day. bowling short and even asking the batsman to go for die hook. T thought tlieir pacers, O'Brien in particular, bowled very well," he later remarked.
"We can't say that we are safe as we are 183 for 4 and need to bat like this tomorrow also," he added.
Mehrab talked about grinding the opposition in the oppressive heat of Chittagong adding diat he did, in fact, detect a sense of frustration among the visitors.
"They looked tired. It is really' hot out there and I could see frus-
tration creeping in, especially in the pacers when we were playing them easy. It is hard work playing out there in that heat," said Mehrab.
His 139-run unbroken partner ship with Mushfiqur Rahim is now the best fifth wicket stand for Bangladesh and Mehrab revealed that his days in die agc-group teams with the young right-hander gave them an edge.
"1 have great understanding with Mushfiqur (Rahim) and also with Shakib (Al Hasan) as we have played a lot of cricket together," said Mehrab.
"We never looked at the scoreboard and just snick to the team plan. Throughout our partnership Rahim and I just talked about that and concentrated on executing die plan. We also decided to take no risk when the second new ball was taken," added the21-year-old.
"It was a very firing day and I diink I will sleep well tonight," quipped the left-hander when suggested that he would have a sleepless night thinking about a hundred.
Unbeaten on 79 off 164 balls, a maiden Test century would be the natural progression for the batsman who showed great maturity in handling all the criticism after failing to keep a place in the World Cup team last year. He had a solid outing in the last domestic season and made sure he ticked all the
SEE PAGE 18 COL 5 FROM PAGE 17
right boxes by scoring whenever he was selected for Bangladesh A and the Academy.
SCOREBOARD
Scoreboard at stumps on the opening day of the first Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium on Friday:
BAGLADESH: First innings
Tamim c McCullum bVettori 18
Zunaed lbw b O'Brien 0
Rajin b O'Brien 20
Ashraful lbw bVettori 2
Mchrabnotout 79
Mushfiqurnotout 59
Extras: (b-4, lb-1) 5
Total:(For four wkts in 94 overs) 183 To bat: Shakib, Naeem, Mashrafe, Shahadat, Razzak.
Fall of wickets: 1 -0,2-34,3-40,4 -44.
Bowler O M R W
Mills 14 6 25 0
O'Brien 17 9 25 2
Oram 15 11 9 0
Ryder 3 1 10 0
Patel 17 5 59 0
Vettori 28 10 50 2
NEW ZEALAND: Redmond, How, Ryder, Taylor. McCullum, Flynn, Oram, Vettori, Mills, O'Brien, Patel. Toss: Bangladesh
Umpires: Daryl Harper (AUS), Asoka de Silva (SRI)
TV umpire: Enamul Hoque (BAN) Match referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)