Bangladesh seek redemption against high-flying New Zealand

NAPIER   –  After losing the opening T20I by 66 runs to New Zealand, Bangladesh will aim to make a comeback to keep their chances in the series alive.

New Zealand won the series opener comprehensively owing to the efforts of Devon Conway and Ish Sodhi. After a clean sweep in the ODI series, New Zealand will be looking to replicate the same in the T20I series. Conway continued his purple patch with an unbeaten knock of 92 from 52 balls. His innings along with Will Young’s 53 helped New Zealand post a mammoth total of 210/3. With the ball, Ish Sodhi’s sublime 4/28 dismantled Bangladesh’s middle order.

The absence of key players Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, and Mushfiqur Rahim proved costly for Bangladesh as their middle order collapsed to the New Zealand attack. On the contrary, the hosts didn’t seem out of place even though they were missing the likes of Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Colin Munro, Tim Siefert, Trent Boult, Jimmy Neesham, and Mitchell Santner.

In the 1st T20I, New Zealand posted a colossal total thanks to Conway’s brilliant 92* and valuable contributions from Young, Martin Guptill (35), and a quick-fire 24 off 10 balls from Glenn Phillips. In the chase, Bangladesh crumbled to Sodhi’s trickery, his match-winning four-wicket haul ensured a 66-run victory for New Zealand, putting them 1-0 up in the series.

New Zealand captain Tim Southee said: “It was a relatively inexperienced side, but to put up a performance like that was very pleasing. Was pleasing to see Will play so well and also Devon carrying on what he has done at this level. It’s great to see guys come out and perform like this. There are a number of guys knocking on the door who are coming out and performing well at this level, that’s a great sign for New Zealand at the moment.”

Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah said: “The bowlers bowled quite well, Nasum Ahmed bowled really well on his debut. Once again, we have let ourselves in the batting dept, kept losing wickets in clusters. We need to pick ourselves up in the second game. He’s (Conway) in very good touch, he has been batting really well. We need to find a way to restrict him. 190 was a good score here to chase, we conceded few more boundaries. But the batting unit has to click. Ish is an experienced campaigner, he used the conditions really well, the ball was gripping a little bit here. We can’t afford to make the same mistakes again and again.”

SQUADS (LIKELY) 

NEW ZEALAND: Finn Allen, Martin Guptill, Devon Conway (wk), Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Tim Southee (capt), Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Hamish Bennett. 

BANGLADESH: Liton Das (wk), Mohammad Naim, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah (capt), Afif Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Shoriful Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman.