CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, 29 October 2004 — Daniel Vettori spun New Zealand to the brink of a crushing victory over Bangladesh in the second and final Test at the M.A. Aziz Stadium here yesterday.

The left-arm spinner took his second 10- wicket haul in Tests as Bangladesh reached 210-8 after being asked to follow-on on the third day. They were out for just 182 earlier in the day in reply to New Zealand’s 545-6 declared.

Mohammad Rafique (30) and Tapash Baisya (15) were the not out batsmen at close. Vettori extracted both turn and bounce on

a pitch favoring spinners to finish with 6-70 in the first innings and was ably supported by offspinner Paul Wiseman (3-68) as New Zealand took a massive 363-run first innings lead.

With the visiting side enforcing the followon a little after lunch, Vettori came back to demolish the batting once again with a haul of 4-77, which included the scalp of Mohammad Ashraful, who got a ‘pair’ of zeroes.

Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud’s fighting 51 off 87 deliveries, in which he hit four boundaries, helped stretch the match to the fourth day.

He played on a delivery from Jacob Oram to give the pacer his first wicket of the match. Bangladesh have to score 153 more runs to make New Zealand bat again.

Earlier in the day, Bangladesh, overnight 82- 3, were tormented by Vettori and Wiseman and could only add 100 runs in their first innings.

Javed Omar (58) was the only one to provide resistance, striking five boundaries off 151 deliveries before he was caught by Matthew Sinclair at silly-point off Wiseman.

Omar, 45 overnight, swept the spinners repeatedly as he got to his fifth half-century in Tests and also crossed the 1,000-run mark during his defiant knock.

The 27-year-old opener became only the second Bangladesh batsman to do so after unavailable regular skipper Habibul Bashar, who has got 2,079 runs in 30 Tests.

Bangladesh started the day badly as Ashraful (0) tried to loft only the second delivery and gave a simple catch to Nathan Astle at mid-on off Wiseman. Vettori then took over as he had Kapali (13) caught at slip and trapped Mashud (18) lbw as Bangladesh reached 172-7 at lunch.

The spinner came back to take two more wickets after the break to ensure his ninth haul of five or more wickets in an innings.

Mongia Joins Leicestershire

In London, Indian batsman Dinesh Mongia will play English county cricket for Leicestershire next season, the club announced yesterday.

Left-hander Mongia, 27, replaces Australian Brad Hodge who could be involved in the 2005 Ashes tour. Mongia, who has a first class average of 53.29 and a career-best score of 308 not out, has hit 18 centuries and 20 half centuries in his total of 5,500 runs but has yet to play Test cricket for India. But he has scored eight hundreds in limited overs cricket, including an unbeaten 159 for India, for whom he has played 48 One-Day Internationals. In all one-day competitions Mongia averages a healthy 34.34.

Mongia, also a useful left-arm spinner, gained experience of English conditions last season in two separate spells with Lancashire, first as a replacement for the injured Carl Hooper and then for Stuart Law.

In nine Championship innings he averaged 67.14 hitting two centuries and two half-centuries.

James Whitaker, Leicestershire’s Director of Cricket, said: “We are delighted to have signed Dinesh Mongia as one of our overseas players in 2005. Dinesh is a high quality player who will offer the team exciting options with both bat and ball.

Whitaker also confirmed that Australian fast bowler Mark Cleary has agreed to spend another season at Leicestershire as their second overseas player after impressing last summer.