Close New Zealand 306 for 5 (Richardson 124*, McMillan 106)
scorecard

A career-best innings from opener Mark Richardson and a century from Craig McMillan rescued New Zealand from possible embarrassment on the third day of the first Test at Hamilton.

After two days washed out, the rain relented long enough for two and a half sessions to be played and, against all the odds, it was Bangladesh's bowlers who dominated before lunch. On a green, damp pitch, New Zealand struggled against the easy-paced seam bowling and slumped to 51 for 4. Lou Vincent, who hit a century on his Test debut against Australia earlier in the month, returned to earth with a first-ball duck.

Although the ball continued to move considerably all day, Richardson and McMillan stopped the rot with a fifth-wicket partnership of 190. Richardson, whose only other Test century came on the same ground against Pakistan early this year, was dropped three times before he had reached 50. Although McMillan fell immediately after tea, Chris Cairns (40*) took up the attack and added an unbeaten 65 for the sixth wicket by the close.

New Zealand 1 Mark Richardson, 2 Lou Vincent, 3 Mathew Sinclair, 4 Stephen Fleming (capt), 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Chris Cairns, 8 Adam Parore (wk), 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Chris Martin.

Bangladesh 1 Al Sahariar Rokon, 2 Aminul Islam, 3 Habibul Bashar, 4 Javed Omar, 5 Khaled Mahmud, 6 Manjural Islam, 7 Masrafee bin Murtoza, 8 Khaled Mashud (capt/wk), 9 Mohammad Ashraful, 10 Mohammad Sharif, 11 Sanwar Hossain.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd