NAPIER: Bangladesh clai­med an historic five-wicket win over New Zealand on Wednesday after their bowlers ran riot in the opening game of their three-match Twenty20 International series in Napier on Wednesday.

This was Bangladesh’s first Twenty20 win on New Zealand soil, four days after also claiming a maiden away ODI win over the Black Caps in Napier.

“I’m really excited and very proud of how we played,” said Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.

Asked to bat by Shanto, New Zealand made a disastrous start losing three wickets before reaching 134 for nine after their 20 overs.

“Our bowlers learnt quickly in these conditions with the new ball,” Shanto added. “We were really confident after we restricted them.”

The Black Caps bowlers gave home fans hope with the early wickets of Bangladesh opener Rony Talukdar and Shanto.

Veteran Litton Das partnered up with Soumya Sarkar, then Towhid Hridoy to steer Ban­gladesh to 96-4 after 13 overs.

The visitors were wobbling at 97-5 as they lost wickets in quick succession after Afif Hossain was caught for one run off six balls.

Das, who finished on 42 not out, survived two close calls as he battled cramp.

The on-field umpire gave him out lbw on Tim Southee’s bowling, but the Bangladesh opener stayed at the crease when the review showed the ball would have sailed over the stumps.

Ish Sodhi then caught Das at the boundary, but stepped onto the boundary rope to give away six runs.

It fell to all-rounder Mahedi Hasan, who finished 19 not out, to hit the winning runs in his partnership of 40 alongside Das with eight balls spare.

“Credit to Bangladesh, they bowled well,” said Mitchell Santner, who captained New Zealand with regular white ball skipper Kane Williamson rested.

“We fought hard with the ball to make it interesting, but the powerplay took it away from us with the bat,” Santner added.

The second and third T20 in Internationals will both be played at Mount Maunganui on Friday, then Sunday.

Bangladesh, ranked ninth in T20 International cricket, punched above their weight to floor third-ranked New Zealand.

Having dismissed the Black Caps for 98 in Saturday’s third ODI in losing the series 2-1, the Bangladesh bowlers picked up where they left off.

Hasan bowled Tim Seifert in the opening over.

Shoriful Islam was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with 3-26, including having Finn Allen caught and Glenn Phillips trapped lbw in consecutive balls.

Daryl Mitchell hit consecutive fours before falling for 14 to leave New Zealand 20-4.

Mark Chapman hit 19 off as many balls before being caught with the score on 50-5.

Santner and James Neesham put on 41 before Sarkar made his second catch to dismiss Santner, having also caught Allen in the slips.

Neesham fell two runs short of his 50, holing out at deep cover point, and Southee was caught on eight.

Adam Milne hit a towering six off the final ball to finish 16 not out before Bangladesh’s batters chipped away at New Zealand’s tally.

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND:F. Allen c Soumya b Shoriful 1T. Seifert b Mahedi 0D. Mitchell b Mahedi 14G. Phillips lbw b Shoriful 0M. Chapman c Tanzim b Rishad 19J. Neesham c Afif b Mustafizur 48M. Santner c Soumya b Shoriful 23A. Milne not out 16T. Southee c Afif b Mustafizur 8I. Sodhi c Liton b Tanzim 2B. Sears not out 1EXTRAS (LB-1, W-1) 2TOTAL (for nine wickets, 20 overs) 134FALL OF WICKETS: 1-1 (Seifert), 2-1 (Allen), 3-1 (Phillips), 4-20 (Mitchell), 5-50 (Chapman), 6-91 (Santner), 7-110 (Neesham), 8-124 (Southee), 9-127 (Sodhi)BOWLING: Mahedi 4-0-14-2, Shoriful 4-0-26-3, Tanzim 4-0-45-1 (1w), Mustafizur 4-0-15-2, Rishad 3-0-24-1, Afif 1-0-9-0BANGLADESH:Liton Das not out 42Rony Talukdar c Southee b Milne 10Najmul Hossain c Santner b Neesham 19Soumya Sarkar b Sears 22Towhid Hridoy c Southee b Santner 19Afif Hossain c Neesham b Southee 1Mahedi Hasan not out 19EXTRAS (LB-3, W-2) 5TOTAL (for five wickets, 18.4 overs) 137DID NOT BAT: Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur RahmanFALL OF WICKETS: 1-13 (Rony), 2-38 (Najmul), 3-67 (Soumya), 4-96 (Towhid), 5-97 (Afif)BOWLING: Southee 4-0-16-1, Milne 3.4-0-39-1 (1w), Neesham 1-0-7-1, Sears 4-0-36-1, Sodhi 2-0-20- (1w), Santner 4-0-16-1RESULT: Bangladesh won by five wickets.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2023