The NZ vs BAN match today was an incredible battle between two of cricket’s biggest teams. Bangladesh showed incredible tenacity in defeating New Zealand, winning by an impressive five wickets.
Bangladesh’s bowlers ran wild in the first game of their three-match Twenty20 series on Wednesday in Napier, leading to a historic five-wicket victory over New Zealand.
Four days prior, in Napier, Bangladesh had defeated the Black Caps in their first-ever away one-day international match. This was Bangladesh’s first Twenty20 victory on New Zealand soil.
Bangladesh defeated New Zealand 134 for 9 (Neesham 48, Santner 23, Shoriful 3-26, Mahedi 2-14) by five wickets with 137 for 5 (Litton 42*, Sarkar 22, Southee 1-16, Santner 1-16).
In the first two games of the three-match T20I series, Bangladesh faced New Zealand in Napier with a 1-0 lead thanks to opener Litton Das’s calm pursuit of the target of 135 runs.
As his batting partners were getting starts and losing wickets too soon, Litton was the watchful batter for NZ vs BAN. However, once Mahedi Hasan, ranked seven, joined him, Litton took no more chances and raced from 29 in 32 balls to finish with an undefeated forty-two.
But Bangladesh’s bowlers, who held NZ vs BAN to a below-average total on a slightly two-paced but demon-free Napier surface, were primarily responsible for their easy victory. With two wickets in the game’s second over, Shoriful Islam finished with a 3 for 26, while Mustafizur Rahman’s variations saw him finish with a 2 for 15 in four overs.
Although the New Zealand supporters were wearing Santa hats, the visitors were celebrating early after Bangladesh decided to bowl first. After getting a ball to turn in within the first over, offspinner Mahedi took the new ball and flattened Tim Seifert’s poles. On the other end, Shoriful got a full ball to nip away from Finn Allen, taking the edge to first slip. Glenn Phillips was then dismissed for a first-ball leg before wicket on the next delivery. Soon after, Mitchell attempted to go inside-out off Mahedi, only to play inside the ball’s line and have his stumps rattled. This turned New Zealand’s score of 1 for 3 into 20 for 4.
In his subsequent over, Shoriful gave up a couple of boundaries to Mitchell Santner and James Neesham, but he ended up having the last laugh when he trapped Santner at short midwicket. Although Soumya Sarkar was unsure if he had made the catch, the TV umpire declared it to be clean.
Mustafizur didn’t pick up any wickets in his opening spell, but he made sure NZ vs BAN didn’t give away too many runs in the end. He forced Neesham to hole out to deep cover, stopping him in his tracks even though he was looking good at that point with a 28-ball 48. He had even tricked Tim Southee. In all, Mustafizur returned figures of 2 for 15, bowled 15 dots, and gave up just one six against the run of play. The three bowlers’ combined figures were 12-0-55-7 overall.
New Zealand knew their new-ball effort could still potentially turn the tide in their favour, even though the chase appeared straightforward. Rony Talukdar miscued a shot to mid-on in the second over due to Adam Milne’s speed.
