In the second one-day international encounter of the three-match series, which took place yesterday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh was defeated by the visitors by 86 runs, bringing an end to their 15-year undefeated record in one-day internationals played at home versus New Zealand.
After a string of seven consecutive defeats in one-day international matches in Bangladesh, the Black Caps decided to bat on the challenging Mirpur surface and posted an impressive total of 254 runs before being bowled out. Prior to that, the Black Caps had not won an ODI in Bangladesh since beating the hosts in October 2008. The Bangladesh batting lineup was then decimated by leg-spinner Ish Sodhi, who took six wickets while allowing just 39 runs. As a result, the home team was bowled out for 168 runs in 41.1 overs.
while the visitors were playing with a batting line-up that included mostly of reserve players, they got themselves into early problems. They lost three wickets for a total of 36 runs while Mustafizur Rahman and Khaled Ahmed were bowling to them, and the rookie pacer finally ended up with three wickets. But a 61-ball 49 from Henry Nicholls and a 66-ball 68 from Tom Blundell in the middle-order rescued the ship for the New Zealanders. This was followed by some useful efforts down the order, including 35 from player-of-the-match Sodhi, which got them to the total that they finally defended easily.
Despite a revitalizing 44 runs off 58 deliveries from Tamim Iqbal, the former captain of Bangladesh’s team who played for the first time since July of this year, Bangladesh’s pursuit of the target was never able to get going. The left-handed opener was the third of Sodhi’s six victims when he was dismissed with the team score at 92 for five. At this point, Bangladesh were already staring down the barrel. In the process of holding the rocking ship for a considerable amount of time and surpassing 10,000 runs in all three forms, Mahmudullah Riyad, another player returning to the national squad, was a returnee. However, due to a careless shot on 49 against the off-break of Cole McConchie, the experienced all-rounder fell one run short of 5000 runs in ODIs, which put an end to Bangladesh’s aspirations of putting up a fight.
As a result of the inclement weather that prevented the first game of the three-game series from being played, the third game that was originally planned to take place on Tuesday will now serve as the series decider. This presents a chance for the foreign team to hand Bangladesh its first loss in a home series in 15 years.
Another bad performance from Liton Das, along with Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Soumya Sarkar, who both failed to establish a case for inclusion in World Cup squad, are some of the reasons why the Bangladesh team management is concerned about the fragile batting effort. This is in addition to the fact that the record is at stake. Runs from Tamim and Mahmudullah, on the other hand, would make up for some of the corners’ deficiencies.