Opener Will Young hit a quick century as New Zealand recovered from a poor start to defeat Bangladesh by 44 runs in the opening one-day international on Sunday.
After three rain delays during New Zealand’s innings in Dunedin, the match was reduced to 30 overs apiece.
The home team exploded in the final stages to register an impressive 239-7 score.
Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto described the outcome as “very disappointing” following pacer Shoriful Islam’s early fireworks.
“If we’d taken a third wicket, it could have been a different ball game,” Shanto added, before pointing to the costly spin bowling of Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Afif Hossain as a weakness.
“I think our fast bowlers bowled really well but our spinners need to learn quickly before the next match.”
Bangladesh were reduced to 200-9 in a chase that lost momentum after needing an amended goal of 245 to win the first ODI of the three-match series.
New Zealand recovered after losing two wickets in the first over, when seamer Shoriful Islam caught Rachin Ravindra and Henry Nicholls both without scoring.
A superb 171-run third-wicket stand between Young (105 off 84 balls) and captain Tom Latham (92 runs) handed the advantage back to the hosts in a contest played in cloudy circumstances throughout.
Their stand spanned two timeouts, which lowered the innings from 46 to 40 and finally to 30 overs.
The pair hit out in savage fashion during the final 10.4 overs, when the hosts scored 131 runs.
Latham was bowled out for his eighth ODI century by off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz, but Young went on to reach three figures for the third time in 50-over cricket before being run out in the penultimate over.
Young stated that his first aim was to stabilize the innings following its poor start.
“Tommy and I set up a nice partnership although it was on and off with the rain,” Young told reporters.
“We came back on with 10 overs to go and thought, why not give it a shot?” And it finally fell off today. It was good to grab a few out of the middle in the end, and finishing with a win is the icing on the cake.”
Shoriful was Bangladesh’s standout bowler, taking 2-28 off six overs.
The chase got off to a fast start, with opener Anamul Haque scoring 43, followed by Towhid Hridoy (33) and Liton Das (22) all scoring at more than a run a ball.
However, the chase was cut short when Afif Hossain was bowled for a hard-hitting 38 in the 24th over, with his team still needing 80 runs.
Allrounder Josh Clarkson, who made his debut alongside seamer William O’Rourke, had New Zealand’s best bowling stats of 2-24.
The remaining games will be played next week in Nelson and Napier, as Bangladesh seeks its first ODI victory over the Black Caps on New Zealand soil after 17 defeats.