NAPIER: Bangladesh’s pace attack shredded New Zealand’s batting on a green Napier pitch to record a historic nine-wicket win in the third and final One-day International here at McLean Park on Saturday.

Having been well beaten in the first two matches to cede the series, Bangladesh produced a remarkable form reversal to dismiss the hosts for just 98 in 34.1 overs.

The run chase was a procession, with captain Najmul Hossain Shanto scoring an unbeaten half-century as they coasted to 99-1 in 15.1 overs.

It was Bangladesh’s first ODI win over the Black Caps on New Zealand soil, where they had lost the 18 previous fixtures since their first attempt in 1990.

Najmul said victory would be a source of pride and was just reward for the improvements he believes his eighth-ranked team are making.

“Really proud of the boys playing in this match,” he said. “Before we started this series we really believed that we could win the series.

“The last couple of matches we played well but we couldn’t finish. Today the boys played some good cricket and we got the result.”

Najmul’s contribution began with him winning the toss and inserting the Black Caps on a lush, bouncy surface which also offered sideways movement — and his seamers responded.

Three of them picked up three wickets as New Zealand were skittled for their lowest total in 45 ODIs between the teams.

Tanzim Hasan Sakib (3-14) and Soumya Sarkar (3-18) both bagged career-best figures while Shoriful Islam’s 3-22 included the scalp of top-scoring Will Young, caught in the gully for 26.

Tanzim said his methods were simple.

“I tried to bowl wicket to wicket and I tried to bowl line and length. The wicket did the rest of the work. It really helped me.”

Young has been in superb touch in the series, scoring 105 and 89 in the wins in Dunedin and Nelson, respectively.

Captain Tom Latham (21) put on 36 with Young for the third wicket but his dismissal — clean bowled by Islam — sparked a collapse which saw the last eight wickets fall for 40 runs, many of them to wayward shots.

There was an early blemish in the run chase when opening batter Soumya — who scored 169 in a losing cause in Napier on Wednesday — was forced to retire hurt for four because of an eye problem.

Loose New Zealand bowling meant there were few problems from that point, with Najmul (51 not out) putting on 69 with opener Anamul Haque, who was the only batsman dismissed when edging paceman William O’Rourke on 37.

O’Rourke had earlier been struck for four successive boundaries by the free-hitting Najmul in the 11th over of the innings.

New Zealand had rested a number of senior players for the series and Latham said some of his newer squad members will have learned a lot.

“Obviously it was a very below-par performance,” he said. “Bangladesh found a way to bowl on that surface and managed to get plenty out of it. We weren’t able to build any sort of pressure and put it back on them so it’s pretty disappointing.”

The teams will prepare for a three-match T20 International series, starting in Napier on Wednesday.

SCOREBOARD

NEW ZEALAND:

W. Young c Mehidy b Shoriful 26

R. Ravindra c Mushfiqur b Tanzim 8

H. Nicholls c Najmul b Tanzim 1

T. Latham b Shoriful 21

T. Blundell c Mehidy b Tanzim 4

M. Chapman b Shoriful 2

J. Clarkson b Soumya 16

A. Milne b Soumya 4

A. Ashok c Mushfiqur b Soumya 10

J. Duffy not out 1

W. O’Rourke b Mustafizur 1

EXTRAS (B-1, W-3) 4

TOTAL (all out, 31.4 overs) 98

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Ravindra), 2-22 (Nicholls), 3-58 (Latham), 4-61 (Young), 5-63 (Chapman), 6-70 (Blundell), 7-85 (Clarkson), 8-86 (Milne), 9-97 (Ashok)

BOWLING: Shoriful 7-0-22-3; Tanzim 7-2-14-3; Mustafizur 7.4-0-36-1 (2w); Soumya 6-1-18-3 (1w); Mehidy 1-0-3-0; Rishad 3-0-4-0

BANGLADESH:

Soumya Sarkar retired hurt 4

Anamul Haque c Blundell b O’Rourke 37

Najmul Hossain not out 51

Litton Das not out 1

EXTRAS (NB-2, W-4) 6

TOTAL (for one wicket, 15.1 overs) 99

FALL OF WICKET: 1-84 (Anamul)

DID NOT BAT: Mushfiqur Rahim, Towhid Hridoy, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman BOWLING: Milne 4-0-18-0; Duffy 5-0-27-0 (2w, 2nb); Clarkson 2-0-19-0; O’Rourke 4-0-33-1 (2w); Ashok 0.1-0-2-0

RESULT: Bangladesh won by nine wickets.

SERIES: New Zealand won three-match series 2-1.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2023