New Zealand rout Bangladesh

Bangladesh suffered their second heavy defeat in three days as they were routed by New Zealand by nine wickets. New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming won the toss and elected to bowl first on a perfect batting track.

Bangladesh’s start was in stark contrast to the one they made against Australia. This time, the start was much more sedate, and both the Bangladeshi openers seemed determined to see off the new ball, at the expense of the run rate.

After the fifteenth over, Bangladesh had made a good start of 45-0. However, in the 17th over disaster struck for Bangladesh as Tamim Iqbal missed a Jacob Oram delivery and Brendon McCullum made a brilliant stumping, leaving Bangladesh 55-1.

It was more bad news for Bangladesh two overs later, as Oram struck again – this time removing the other Bangaldeshi opener. Javed Omar was on 22 when he edged one to the keeper and was not given out, but decided to walk anyway.

Bangladesh were 62-2 and needed some consolidation to prevent a collapse.

The batsmen did consolidate, but the run rate was still stifled (94 balls for the first fifty, 69 for the second), and on a good pitch anything under 240-250 was likely to be a losing total.

As Bangladesh were trying to accelerate, Styris picked up his first wicket by dismissing Aftab Ahmed for 27.

Bangladesh were in a tough position as their run rate was not good enough, yet they lost wickets every time a batsman tried to accelerate the scoring.

Habibul Bashar was next and a captain’s innings was required, but he was run out for nine when Oram scored a direct hit from the deep.

After another over Shane Bond came back into the attack and immediatly scored a wicket with his first ball, removing Saqibul Hasan’s middle stump. Bond wasn’t done yet, and with his final delivery, dislodged Mushfiqur Rahim’s off stump.

At this point, Bangladesh were 127-6 after 36 overs, and there was only the tail to follow. Unfortunately, the tail did not wag as much as Bangladesh wanted and from 122-4, they slumped to 140-9.

The last wicket put on a stand of 34 runs to give Bangladesh something to bowl at, with the final score being 174 all out after 48.3 overs.

New Zealand began their innings well and the opening pair of Peter Fulton and Stephen Fleming raced to 44 off just nine overs.

Bangladesh finally struck in the 10th over when Peter Fulton hit one off Syed Rasel in the air for an easy catch at mid on.

Fleming continued on, supported by Hamish Marshall and brought up his fifty in the 19th over.

After the fifty, New Zealand upped the rate of scoring, especially Fleming who made an unbeaten century off just 92 balls. Hamish Marshall brought up his fifty with a six off the last ball of the innings, and New Zealand chased down the total in just 29.2 overs.

Bangladesh 174 (48.3 overs)
Mohammad Rafique 30*, Tamim Iqbal 29, Aftab Ahmed 27
Scott Styris 4-43, Jacob Oram 3-30, Shane Bond 2-15

New Zealand 178-1 (29.2 overs)
Stephen Fleming 102*, Hamish Marshall 50
Syed Russel 1-22

New Zealand win by 9 wickets

Cricket Web Player of the Match Stephen Fleming 102* (92 balls)