Brief Scores: New Zealand 98/10 in 31.4 overs (Will Young 26; Tanzim Hassan 3/14, Shoriful Islam 3/22) lost to Bangladesh 99/1 in 15.1 overs (Najmul Hossain Shanto 51*, Anamul Haque 37; William ORourke 1/33) by nine wickets.
Bangladesh scripted a maiden One-Day international victory over New Zealand in New Zealand on Saturday (December 23), following a dominant bowling display in the third and final match of the series at Mclean Park in Napier.
After going down heavily in the last two matches and conceding an unassailable 2-0 series lead, the Bangla Tigers were staring at a disastrous whitewash with the weight of history staked against them. Never before had they come out triumphant in an ODI on Kiwi shores versus the BlackCaps
As it panned out, the new-ball pairing of Shoriful Islam and Tanzim Hasan rewrote the history books in an outstanding burst that ran through the New Zealand batting line-up for an embarrassing 98 all out in the first half.
Both seamers troubled the strong Kiwi batting line-up and picked up three wickets apiece. While Islam ended with figures of 3 for 22 off his seven overs, his partner Tanzim finished off the proceedings with an even better 3 for 14 off his seven overs.
Bangladesh Script Historic Maiden Win In New Zealand
The duo of Tanzim and Islam was backed up quite earnestly by comeback opener Soumya Sarkar, who once again brought his useful medium fast-bowling to the fore and picked up three wickets of his own for just 18 runs to round off Bangladesh’s most complete bowling effort in New Zealand.
In a disastrous scorecard, only two batters from the New Zealand camp – Will Young (26) and stand-in skipper Tom Latham (21) – managed to reach double digits while the rest collapsed horribly as the home side went from a decent 58 for 2 to lose their next eight wickets inside 40 runs.
Bangladesh got off to a horrific start themselves as Sarkar was forced to retire hurt for just 4 runs before skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto controlled the proceedings with a delightful half-century (51) and batted with strong command during a partnership with Anamul Haque (37), who got out close to the finish line.
Fittingly, the new skipper, Shanto, struck the winning run and pushed Bangladesh towards a maiden ODI victory on Kiwi shores. Bangladesh finished the series happier after conceding defeats in the earlier two matches.