THREE days after registering their maiden ODI win in New Zealand, Bangladesh once again tasted history in Napier, this time with their maiden T20I win on these shores.
Opting to bowl first on what Jimmy Neesham felt was a “naughty little wicket” at the halfway mark, Bangladesh restricted New Zealand to 134/9, thanks to five shared wickets between Shoriful Islam and Mahedi Hasan, before chasing the target with eight balls and five wickets to spare.
It all started in the first over of the match. Mahedi Hasan got the new ball to spin and bowled Tim Seifert but what followed was even more dramatic. Shoriful Islam, the left-arm pacer, picked two wickets in the next over, first getting Finn Allen edging behind and then trapping Glenn Phillips lbw. Mahedi then returned to pick the wicket of Daryl Mitchell, skidding one past his edge to breach his defences, and it took some shot-making from Mark Chapman in the last over of PowerPlay to take NZ to 36/4 by the end of six overs.
Their association of 41 runs for the sixth wicket was the highest partnership of the innings, and had Bangladesh thinking for the first time in the innings. Tanzim Hasan Sakib, the debutant, came in for a bit of a stick and conceded 15 runs to the pair in the 14th over of the innings. It took Shoriful Islam to come back and break the stand as Santner mistimed a pull and was caught inches above the ground by Soumya Sarkar at mid-wicket.
Top-scorer Neesham (48 off 29) threatened to take NZ to a par score but right after he scored 6, 4 and a 6 off three consecutive deliveries spread across 16th and 17th overs, Mustafizur had him caught in the deep. The pacer then bowled the 19th over and conceded only 1 run, all but sealing New Zealand’s total below the par mark.
Bangladesh lost Rony Talukdar and Nazmul Hossain Shanto inside the PowerPlay but the nature of the target allowed Litton (42* off 36) to play with patience and prevent further damage. It helped that Soumya Sarkar walked in with an attacking intent at the other end, his 22 off 15 helping chip crucial runs off the target. Once he was bowled by Ben Sears, Towhid Hridoy and then Mahedi Hasan did the exact same thing as Bangladesh eased to the target. (Cricbuzz)
