Bangladesh Dominate in Third ODI to Get Historic First ODI Victory in Aotearoa

Bangladesh Dominate in Third ODI to Get Historic First ODI Victory in Aotearoa

Bangladesh has taken a historic victory in the third ODI against New Zealand with a 9-wicket win in Napier. 

The Bangladesh bowlers were right on fire from the start of the match with Tanzim Hasan Sakib having both Rachin Ravindra (8) and Henry Nicholls (1) gone inside the first eight overs.

In what would be the Kiwi's highest stand of the day, captain Tom Latham and Will Young had a resilient 36-run stand for the third wicket. 

The highlight of their partnership was Tom Latham top edging a ball for six, but even that wasn’t the best shot Latham’s ever played. 

Two overs after the shot, Latham was bowled by Shoriful Islam for 21, New Zealand three down now. Soon that would change through a massive middle order collapse.

Will Young was joined by Mark Chapman but only three runs could be added between them as Young fell for 26, New Zealand now 61/4. 

Chapman went for 2 and the score read 63/5. The big task of a partnership would now need to be left to Tom Blundell and Josh Clarkson. 

Sadly for the home side, they just couldn’t put together any solid runs with Soumya Sarkar, Islam and Sakib destroying the middle order. 

When Blundell fell for 4, a quality total by the Blackcaps was quickly being washed away with the bowlers now in the middle. 

Clarkson looked confident in the middle and there was hope that he could push on and get the big score that would be needed. This was however not the case as Sarkar bowled him for 16 and then also had Adam Milne bowled for four in his next over.

Adi Ashok played a couple of shots for four during his time in the middle but found himself falling to Sarkar for 10. Will O’Rourke added one run to the total but was bowled by Mustafizur Rahman and the Blackcaps all out for 98. 

Islam (3/22), Sakib (3/14), and Sarkar (3/18) all took three wickets whilst Young top-scored with 26. 

Bangladesh lost Sarkar early to what appeared to be an injury with his eye for four runs. 

Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto joined opener Anamul Haque Bijoy in the middle and they shared a solid but fast partnership of 69 runs in just over 8 overs.

They played some classy shots but were also helped by the fact that as they got closer to the target they could just let free and attack the bowling of Clarkson and O’Rourke. 

Bijoy fell with 15 runs required for victory but Hossain Shanto was able to see his side home with a quality innings of 51* from 42 balls. Litton Das finished not out on 1*. 

New Zealand won the series 2-1, but this series will be remembered for the fact that it was Bangladesh’s first-ever victory over New Zealand in New Zealand.