After 11 attempts to beat New Zealand in T20Is, Bangladesh won their first-ever T20I match against New Zealand earlier in the week and then added another to lead 2-0 in the series.
Despite the series being at home and a few star Kiwi players missing from the team, Bangladesh were sheer outsiders going into this T20I series against New Zealand, one of the best all-format teams in the world right now. After a couple of great performances, they are one win away from a historic series triumph against NZ.
After failing in the first match, openers Mohammad Naim (39 off 39) and Liton Das (33 off 29) got their team off to a solid start. New Zealand’s Indian-origin youngster Rachin Ravindra had a fruitful evening as he picked up three wickets at the expense of just 22 runs in his 2nd ever appearance.
Captain Mahmudullah rose to the occasion and finished the innings with an explosive unbeaten knock of 37 runs. New Zealand required 142 runs to level the series. Tom Latham was the only batsman who made a genuine effort to reach the target. He remained not out on 65 runs as his batting partners kept falling one by one.
Mahedi Hasan picked up two important wickets of opener Tom Blundell and Henry Nicholls and just conceded 12 runs in his four overs. The spin bowlers worked well in tandem and picked up all five wickets among themselves.
Mustafizur Rahman and Mohammad Saifuddin went wicketless but bowled pretty well to ensure that Latham and Cole McConchie were not able to reach the target.
Brief Scores
Bangladesh: 141/6 in 20 overs (Mohammad Naim 39, Mahmudullah 37*; Rachin Ravindra 3/22, Ajaz Patel 1/20) defeated
New Zealand: 137/5 in 20 overs (Tom Latham 65*, Will Young 22; Mahedi Hasan 2/12, Shakib Al Hasan 2/29)
Man of the Match
Mahmudullah
