Dhaka, October 29:

Bangladesh fought hard to stave off an embarrassing defeat against some quality New Zealand bowling as the second Test finally ended in a draw on the fifth and final day here today.

New Zealand clinched the two-match series 1-0 after they won the first Test at Chittagong by three wickets. They nearly pulled off a highly unlikely win after the first three days were washed out. The home team were facing a possible follow-on and with it a defeat at 44-6 before brilliant knocks by all-rounders Shakib Al Hasan (49) and Mashrafe Mortaza (48) helped them avoid the ignominy of batting for a second time.

With not much to play for, the tourists batted a second time and reached 79-1 before both captains decided to call off the match. Jesse Ryder followed his 91 in the first-innings with an unbeaten 39 while Aaron Redmond made 30 not out.

Earlier, Hasan and Mortaza put on a fighting 78-run stand for the seventh wicket which enabled Bangladesh to declare their first innings at 169-9. Because the match became a two-day game after the first three days were washed out, Bangladesh needed to reach within 100 runs of New Zealand’s first-innings score of 262-6 declared to avoid follow-on. Bangladesh’s hopes of levelling the two-match series were dashed by bad weather on the first three days and by sloppy batting on Tuesday.