Mehidy Hasan bagged three of the wickets as New Zealand struggled to cope with spin on a flat surface.
After resuming the day at 258 for five, the New Zealand tailenders could only contribute 25 runs between them while Nicholls added 43 to his overnight 32. Bangladesh were five without loss after three overs at lunch. In a promising start to the day for New Zealand, Rachin Ravindra, the 22-year-old in only his second Test, clipped the third ball he faced to the boundary to get off the mark off as Ebadot Hosain finished the over not completed on day one after Tom Blundell’s late dismissal.
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But he progressed no further as Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Aslam again pinned the batsmen down with the relatively new ball just as they did at the start of the innings. They sent down 28 deliveries before Nicholls clipped Shoriful away for three, putting Ravindra on strike and he edged an away-swinger to third slip three balls later and was gone for four.
New Zealand had lost three wickets for 38 runs and Nicholls, faced with the prospect of running out of partners, went on the attack. Nicholls advanced from 35 to 58 with a string of boundaries over the next five overs including three in a row off Ebadot as he raced past 50.
Kyle Jamieson had no such luck and failed in an attempt to drive Mehidy Hasan out of the ground with the ball falling into the hands of Shadman just inside the boundary and he was gone for six. Tim Southee faced 16 deliveries for six and Neil Wagner went first ball leaving Trent Boult to deny Mehidy Hasan a hat-trick.
Boult, who likes the swashbuckling role, faced five balls to be on nine when Mominul Haque, who accounted for New Zealand’s premier batsman Devon Conway for 122 on the first day, closed the innings with the removal of Nicholls.
Mominul, filling in the gaps in the bowling roster, took two for six off 5.1 overs while Shoriful finished with three for 69 and Mehidy took three for 86.