Bangladesh toil in first Test

First Test, Dhaka, day one (close): Bangladesh 165-6 v New Zealand

Match scorecard

Hannan Sarkar was an early casualty in the match

Bangladesh toiled on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand, reaching 165-6 at the close.

It was slow-going in Dhaka as they scored at less than two runs per over, with Mohammad Ashraful top-scoring with 67 from 189 balls.

Bangladesh got off to a woeful start after winning the toss and electing to bat when they were reduced to 5-3.

But Ashraful and Rajin Saleh put on 115 runs for the fourth wicket to stage something of a recovery.

Jacob Oram, James Franklin and Daniel Vettori took two wickets each.

Opener Hannan Sarkar was the first to go when he drove loosely at Oram to fall for a duck in the first over.

Fellow opener Javed Omar was yorked by Franklin for one and in the seventh over debutant Nafis Iqbal nicked Oram to Brendon McCullum.

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Saleh and Ashraful hauled Bangladesh back into the game before Saleh was out for 41.

Ashraful fell just after tea to spinner Vettori and Alok Kapali went the same way, having scored 14 runs.

Ashraful, who had got out trying to hit Vettori for six, said: "It was a wrong decision to try and hit that ball over the top, but I was impatient to get runs.

"As for the team, I think a score of 250 will be good on this slow pitch."

Bangladesh were without captain Habibul Bashar, who missed the Test with a long-standing thumb injury.

Stand-in captain Khaled Mashud was unbeaten on 12 at the close and Manjural Islam Rana was 16 not out.

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Bangladesh: Hannan Sarkar, Javed Omar, Nafis Iqbal, Rajin Saleh, Alok Kapali, Mohammad Ashraful, Khaled Mashud (capt, wk), Manjural Islam Rana, Mohammad Rafique, Tapash Baisya, Tareq Aziz

New Zealand: MH Richardson, NJ Astle, SP Fleming (capt), MS Sinclair, SB Styris, BB McCullum (wk), JDP Oram, DL Vettori, JEC Franklin, IG Butler, PJ Wiseman.