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Bangladesh have taken a historic victory in the First T20I against New Zealand with a 5-wicket win in Napier.
Bangladesh had three wickets in the first nine balls with Tim Seifert (0), Finn Allen (1), and Glenn Phillips all falling. Mahedi Hasan picked up Seifert whilst Shoriful Islam had Allen and Phillips.
Daryl Mitchell and Mark Chapman looked to be repairing the early damage with Mitchell playing a couple of shots to the boundary during his 15-ball 14. Hasan was reintroduced to the bowling crease and picked up Mitchell in the fifth over to leave the home team at 20/4.
Chapman was joined in the middle by the experienced all-rounder, Jimmy Neesham and they shared a quality 30-run stand to push the New Zealand innings in the right direction. Chapman did fall in the tenth over for a run-a-ball 19.
Captain Mitchell Santner and Neesham then carried on the work that had been started by Neesham and Chapman. In what was one of the most vital stands of the New Zealand innings, both players went after the odd Bangladesh over. They sent Tanzim Hasan Sakib for 15 runs in the fourteenth over with Santner hitting two fours and Neesham a six.
Shoriful then had the breakthrough in the fifteenth over with Soumya Sarkar taking a catch to have Santner dismissed for 23 from 22.
Neesham kept pushing and played some good shots with 11 runs coming off one of Rishad Hossain’s overs. Neesham also hit a six off Mustafizur Rahman but fell next ball via a catch by Afif Hossain in the deep.
Adam Milne and Tim Southee knew that if the Blackcaps were going to get up to a defendable total, they would need to start swinging. The intent was shown as Southee and Milne both found the boundary in the eighteenth over off Shoriful.
The crucial nineteenth over proved costly for New Zealand as they were only able to get one run from it whilst also losing Southee for 8 from 10.
New Zealand finished the last over with nine runs coming from it as Milne cleared the ropes on the last ball of the innings to propel New Zealand to 134/9.
Rony Talukdar only lasted 10 balls into the Bangladesh innings as he fell for 10 from 7, with one of his shots going for six. Milne picked up the wicket.
Wicket-keeper Litton Das was accompanied in the middle now by captain Najmul Hossain Shanto. Together they laid the base for the Bangladesh innings but it was mainly the captain doing the scoring as he contributed 19 of the 25 runs.
Soumya Sarkar joined Das in the middle. It was able to be seen that Sarkar would be the more aggressive player and Das’ role was to just stay in and turn the strike over.
With Bangladesh edging closer to the score they couldn't keep losing wickets, but did. Sarkar went for 22 from 15 and Bangladesh were now 67/3, still a further 68 runs away from victory.
Some good striking of the ball from Towhid Hridoy pushed Bangladesh up past the 90-run mark but he was soon dismissed for 19 from 18 by Santner.
Affi Hossain went in the following over for 1 (5) leaving Bangladesh at 97/5.
The experienced Das played well at the end with Mahedi Hasan, but still, the New Zealand bowlers did keep it tight with Southee and Santner both finishing with figures of 1/16 from four overs.
Ben Sears bowled the eighteenth over and this was the most crucial one of the innings. Sears went for fourteen runs with Das going on the attack as he pushed Bangladesh towards victory.
Mahedi then went 6, 2, 4 in the second to last over and Bangladesh took a five-wicket win with 8 balls remaining.
This victory was also Bangladesh's first T20I victory over New Zealand in New Zealand.
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