In their first World Cup victory, a huge 10-wicket triumph over Sri Lanka showed the massive efficiency of New Zealand. This nail-biting two-wicket win over Bangladesh demonstrated that Kane Williamson’s side can also deliver when things get much harder.
Bangladesh team’s captain Mashrafe Mortaza said that Bangladesh paid the price for a below-par batting performance and made mistakes in the field at important times during their match against New Zealand in the World Cup.
Bangladesh failed to construct on the 50-run partnership between Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, losing wickets to set a target of 245 at The Oval, and Mashrafe said that his men fell at least 20 runs short of a defendable total.
A few early dismissals from New Zealand made us bite our nails, but once Williamson and Ross Taylor joined together in a good partnership of 105, ideas began to turn to how soon the Kiwis could complete the task and whether they could enhance their net running rate in the process. Such trivialities were forgotten rapidly.
New Zealand is now sitting at the top of the table with a perfect record of two wins from two matches in their quest to demonstrate that their name is among the likely winners of this tournament.
The captain of New Zealand should have been rejected in his innings soon, only to survive a certain run-out when wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim broke the stumps before intercepting a ball for the center pole. By the time he left for a steady 40, New Zealand was cruising at 160 for two wickets.
That altered quickly. Wickets collapsed, runs dried up, and a late Bangladesh triumph seemed possible when the seventh wicket collapsed with 27 runs still needed. Only when Santner secured victory with a thriving cover drive could New Zealand lastly relax.
Sent to bat on a new strip next to the one they scored 330 on last weekend to beat South Africa, Bangladesh had stuttered through their innings previously.
Each of their top eight achieved double numbers, but only Shakib Al Hasan was able to kick on, with a top scoring of 64 as a sequence of batsmen gave away their wickets courtesy of edges, hoicks across the line and running calamities. Matt Henry was the pick from a miserable group of bowlers from Kiwi, taking four for 47.
