Jeet Raval followed opening partner Tom Latham's "blueprint" to score a maiden Test century as New Zealand built a big lead on day two of the first Test against Bangladesh.

Raval reached three figures for the first time for his country on Friday, making 132 in an opening stand of 254 with Latham at Seddon Park, where the Blacks Caps closed on 451-4 in reply to the tourists' 234 all out.

The left-hander said watching the way Latham went about scoring an unbeaten double hundred and 176 against Sri Lanka in December helped him register a Test-best total.

"He did it against Sri Lanka, so for me it was a blueprint for how I wanted to go about my game," said Raval.

"I just tried to take a lesson from Tom's game and apply that in my game, and it was very nice.

"We kept it as simple as possible and made sure we stick to our own individual plans and made sure that when the bowlers do get tired, then we capitalise on the opportunities and just build small partnerships and small targets for ourselves, and not look too far ahead.

"Ultimately it was nice to get that big partnership."

Raval added: "I was making sure of working on my discipline and the focus I wanted to build on especially getting starts and not being able to go on and get a big one for the team.

"It was all about looking at what the bowler was trying to do and having the mind set on the game plan that I wanted to apply at that stage and just play to the situation.

"I wasn't really thinking about my hundred and eventually bowlers start to get tired towards the end of their spells and I was able to capitalise and the runs came."