Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
New Zealand geared up for the World Cup as they whitewash Bangladesh in the three-match series 2-0, with a seven wickets win in the final one-day international in Dhaka on Tuesday.
This is New Zealand’s first bilateral series victory over the Tigers in Bangladesh since 2008.
Playing to avoid a series defeat, Bangladesh were bundled out for only 171, with stand-in skipper Nazmul Hossain Shanto fighting a sole battle with his 76-run knock on his return.
In reply, it was an easy task for the Blackcaps as fifties from Will Young and Henry Nicholls took them home with 15.1 overs and seven wickets in hand.
‘The wicket was good, our run rate was good despite losing wickets. Some of our batsmen got set and got out. If we could have had a couple of big partnerships there, then we wouldn’t have faced this situation,’ said Shanto in the post match press conference.
‘If I could have batted till the end, we could have ended on something around 200-220. It was my duty to bat with the tail, so, of course, disappointing.’
‘The World Cup is just around the corner — to come up with the first win since 2008 is great,’ said Young, the man of the match, in a briefing afterwards.
‘This group plays a lot together, we gel well and it’s a lot of fun,’ he added.
Batting first, Bangladesh lost both openers, Zakir Hasan (1) and Tanzid Hasan Tamim (5) within the third over, and Towhid Hridoy (18) also departed by the end of the first powerplay.
Shanto built a 53-run partnership with Mushfiqur Rahim (18) to try and steady the ship but then the latter was dismissed to only increase the trouble.
Shanto, though, kept going on his purple patch, scoring his third 50-plus knock in a row and also scored the highest individual score by a Bangladesh skipper on his ODI captaincy debut, breaking Aminul Islam’s 25-year-old record of 70.
Mahmudullah (21) was caught behind off Adam Milne, and Shak Mahedi Hasan suffered the same fate against Trent Boult.
Shanto was then trapped LBW trying to reverse sweep Cole McConchie, and after his dismissal, Bangladesh could only add three runs to their total to get bundled out for 171.
In reply, Young added 49 runs for the opening stand with Finn Allen (28) before Shoriful Islam struck in consecutive deliveries to get rid of the latter and debutant Dean Foxcroft (0) to give the Tigers a glimmer of hope.
However, an 81-run stand between Young and Henry Nicholls (50 not out) took them near home before the former was bowled by Nasum Ahmed on 70, and from there, the latter combined with Tom Blundell (23 not out) to take them home without being further scathed.
