New Zealand win by five wickets, make it 2-0

New Zealand has easily brushed aside Bangladesh in the second ODI of the three match series to take an unassailable 2-0 lead. The game, which was played at Dunedin, saw the Kiwis win by five wickets, but more importantly by more than 22 overs to spare.

The Bangladeshis were put into bat by New Zealand and were in early trouble. Unable to cope up with the swing and seam of the early morning Dunedin pitch, they lost five wickets for 25. None of the top-order batsmen, including the captain Shakib al Hasan, got a start, and were blown away by some good, accurate bowling by Andy McKay and Ian Butler. Hasan was dismissed for a duck.

25/5 soon became 46/6 and the end looked near for the visitors. However, a fine rear-guard action by the duo of Mushfiqur Rahim, the diminutive wicket-keeper who had recently smashed a Test match century against India, and Naeem Islam saved the tourists the blushes.

They added 101 for the seventh wicket and despite the fact that the runs were slow to come, they were at least a reasonable 185/8 at the end of the innings. It was something of a total to fight for, thanks to Rahim’s 86.

In reply, Brendon McCullum departed early, but Martin Guptill and the new-comer Peter Ingram took the total to 51 in the tenth over. They did lose a wicket at this stage, and at 51/2, it could have made life more difficult for the Kiwis at this stage. However, Ross Taylor took the Bangladeshi bowlers on after a relatively slow start to smash a match-winning innings of 78 off 52 balls.

In the end, Bangladesh did scalp him, but it had become too late by then as Daniel Vettori saw the hosts through to an easy win.

The Bangladeshi batsmen will need to take much of the blame as a score of 183 was never going to be enough. The bowlers tried hard, but did not have enough in their kitty to assist them!