DHAKA, Dec 6, 2023 (BSS)-New Zealand left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner wants his team to learn from the little but effective partnership of Mushfiqur Rahim and Shahadat Hossain Dipu to deny Bangladesh taking the control of the second Test.

Veteran Mushfiqur and Dipu, playing only his second Test, formed a 57-run partnership, which eventually proved to be key at the tricky Sher-e-Bangal National Cricket Stadium.

New Zealand sniffed a chance to dismiss Bangladesh cheaply after taking four wickets for just 47 runs, but Mushfiqur and Dipu resisted and helped the side put up 172 before being all out.
 
The total looked bigger now, considering that New Zealand were reduced to 55-5 at stumps on day one.

The partnership was broken when Mushfiqur was dismissed for handling the ball, after being brain-faded suddenly.

"It's probably not a great option (Mushfiqur's dismissal), because he was looking so good. I mean it was handy for us in terms of the time him and Dipu applied themselves and that was a very good partnership for them," Santner said after the match today.

"And I think, going into tomorrow, if we can kind of get even some little partnerships like that, it's going to be a scrap, this whole test match. So, I think those little kind of partnerships going forward are going to be massive."

According to Santner, it is still possible to take the lead if they can build up a partnership.

"We know it's going to be a challenge. We just talked about trying to build those partnerships. Whoever comes in, it might not be an 80 or 90 but it might be quick, like a 30. And building those partnerships and try to get to a score and then scrap again. It's going to be a bit of a fight for the next few days, no doubt," he added.

Santner was the top performer for New Zealand on day one, grabbing three wickets for 65 runs. He said they needed to emulate Bangladesh spinners who were successful in landing the ball in one spot throughout the day.

"I guess we've seen, obviously, the last game when the Bangladeshi bowlers, they're so good at hitting a spot for a very long period of time and that's what we obviously talked about going into this game. And I guess the way to counter that is to maybe use your feet, reverse sweep, and stuff like that. So, yeah, I think it was obviously a challenging wicket. Enough there for the spinners, if you kind of stuck to a good length for a period of time, and we saw that just from Taijul and Mehidy," he commented.