Two "burgles" down the leg side, a newcomer sucked into an uppish drive, one stubborn tailender bounced out and another trapped plumb lbw - Tim Southee couldn't have scripted a more diverse five-wicket haul.
He would have bowled far better in previous Tests and not picked up a wicket, but Southee had luck on his side at Hagley Oval, where his first scalp was the Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal, caught down the leg side. It was only after Trent Boult ended the third-wicket stand of 127 between Soumya Sarkar and Shakib Al Hasan that Southee begin to bowl better.
Sarkar had struck Southee for six fours, scoring 43 off 49 deliveries from the bowler. Shakib took 12 off 15 balls. Southee eventually dismissed Shakib, and later Nazmul Hossain Shanto, the debutant, to spoil Bangladesh's chances of a bigger total. He also took the wickets of Taskin Ahmed and Kamrul Islam Rabbi during his 28.3-over effort to end the Bangladesh innings on 289.
"I felt all right, it's always nice to pick up wickets," Southee said at the end of the first day. "There were a couple of burgles down the leg side, which are always nice. It looks good in the score book - caught Watling bowled Southee. On other occasions you bowl probably better and haven't got the wickets, but it's nice to contribute and take wickets."
Southee said that it was to New Zealand's credit that they fought through the Soumya-Shakib partnership. The batsmen were hardly troubled as they cut and drove frequently.
"If you can bowl a side out on day one it's a good effort," Southee said. "They came out again with a positive intent and looked to put any balls that we missed away to the fence and they did that, especially in that period before lunch. I think we managed to claw the run rate back a bit towards the end so it's a good day.
"We were pretty good at the start. Then they got a bit of a partnership going, but we know it happens quite quickly. You get a couple wickets, then you can grab a couple more, and we knew if we could hang in our areas for a long period of time then it was our best chance of taking wickets."
Southee's 5 for 94 took him to 198 Test wickets and he is in line to become only the fifth New Zealand bowler to take 200 wickets. "It will be nice if it comes but you don't set out to do too many individual milestones," he said. "They're the sort of things you tick off along the way. The next job is to try to knock them over again. Hopefully after a little bit of rest."