KEY POINTS:
A dreadful day for Bangladesh has left New Zealand a straightforward sweeping-up operation to win the second test at the Basin Reserve today.
The tourists saved their worst for last, and that's saying something, with a wretched all-round effort, dreadful fielding, pop-gun bowling - Shahadat Hossain a wholehearted and honourable exception - followed by second-grade club batting.
At stumps, Bangladesh were 51 for five, still 199 behind New Zealand. The end will come quickly this morning. Excuses can be made for their lack of experience, their naivety in many respects, but even so yesterday was ordinary.
That said, last night should have been time for New Zealand's two senior players to have chugged on celebratory cigars as they reflected on contrasting centuries yesterday.
Instead Daniel Vettori and his predecessor as captain, Stephen Fleming, were left to rue blown opportunities.
For Fleming, the day was especially frustrating. He has yet to hit a century at the Basin and, as his test career enters its twilight period, he'll never get a better chance.
He'd done the hard graft on Saturday, especially against the demanding Shahadat, who was consistently impressive.
Fleming worked hard, kept his head down, unfurled some handsome strokes and enjoyed a big slice of luck. On 61, he skied spinner Shakib Al Hasan to deep mid-on where Shahriar Nafees maintained Bangladesh's wretched fielding performance by making a complete hash of the catch.
But at 87, Fleming played an almost identical stroke to hole out to deep mid-wicket. His body language spoke volumes.
Vettori, by contrast, reached 94 on the back of a pile of pulls, cuts, dabs - and a life on 74 when Mohammad Ashraful inexplicably grassed a goober to mid-on - before tamely lobbing a catch back to the bowler.
For Fleming, it would have been his 10th test hundred; Vettori missed out on his third. He'll have other chances; Fleming might not. A last test at the Basin, against England in March, beckons. The bowling will be infinitely more challenging then than it was over the last two days.
Bangladesh's bowlers had no luck yesterday. The catching was dreadful. Five were dropped - three in the opening hour off Mathew Sinclair - and the ground fielding was ordinary.
Even basic cricket practice, like relaying the ball from wicketkeeper back to bowler, was often sloppy. That didn't affect the scoreline, but added to an overall picture of a side badly needing to sharpen their act up.
New Zealand will not bat again in this test. Questions will hover over the batsmen, who with a couple of notable exceptions have not taken the chance to fill their boots before England arrive.
Opener Craig Cumming got to 42 but it was tough going; Peter Fulton missed out and Sinclair had his chance yesterday but used up a few lives in getting to 47. His first three balls from hardworking Mashrafe Mortaza in the day's opening over produced a desperately close lbw appeal; another appeal, missing leg stump, and a drop at first slip by Tamim Iqbal, who fractured his thumb in the process.
Wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim dropped a hard, low chance, and Mashrafe put Sinclair down at third slip in the space of three Shahadat deliveries.
If ever a batsman should have capitalised on good fortune this was it. Instead, he wasted it, edging to Mushfiqur.
Jacob Oram was given out when he might have been lbw, but certainly was not caught behind as umpire Peter Parker ruled. His was the third poor decision in one-and-a-half innings by umpires Parker and Nigel Llong. That's not good enough.
Fleming at least ended the day with a smile, grabbing his 165th and 166th test catches, moving him to second on the all-time list behind Mark Waugh, who has held 181 catches in tests.
