Williamson happy to avoid SL repeat

There was a tinge of relief on New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson's face after the hosts overcame a 235-run fifth-wicket partnership between Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad and Soumya Sarkar to win the first Test by an innings and 52 runs on the fourth day in Hamilton yesterday.

Such staunch third-innings resistance brought to Williamson's mind the hard-fought draw achieved by Sri Lanka in December in Wellington, when a fourth-day unbroken 274-run stand between Angelo Mathews and Kusal Mendis -- and a rained-out fifth day -- delivered an against-the-odds draw for Sri Lanka.

"I suppose the Bangladesh side were a lot more aggressive [compared to Sri Lanka in December], which meant they were clearly scoring very, very quickly. As a bowling unit, you're hoping that might provide an opportunity," Williamson said with a wry smile when reminded of the frustration against Sri Lanka. "There was some brilliant batting. If we reflect back to the Sri Lanka game, there was also some fantastic batting when we weren't able to get any opportunities.

Soumya (149) and Mahmudullah (146) resumed batting on the fourth day when their partnership was already worth 48 runs and batted well into the second session, with Soumya in particular being brutal on New Zealand's short-ball strategy.

However, after hitting a trio of boundaries against the second new ball, Soumya played across the line to a Trent Boult delivery and found his stumps rattled. That opened the floodgates as even though Mahmudullah remained firm, wickets fell without much protest at the other end.  

"To get the breakthrough, when it came with the second new ball, it was a long time coming. We had to be very patient and it was great that we could open up an end from that point on.

"It was a brilliant performance from us. In the first innings, I thought we adapted [well] to the surface when we thought it would offer a bit more to our seamers.

"It was really hard for us to adapt on a surface that wasn't offering much to the seam bowlers or the spin bowlers."