Bangladesh News

Bangladesh shrugged off a long lean patch and the recent players’ exodus to the ICL to finally put an end to their miserable one-day run with a crushing seven-wicket victory against New Zealand yesterday to take a surprise 1-0 lead in the three-match Brac Bank Series.

Bangladesh, who had lost all their previous 11 encounters against the Black Caps, put on a rare all-round display at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium to overhaul the visitors’ unimpressive 201 for nine in an empathic fashion.

After speedster Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s four-wicket haul under overcast conditions pinned down the New Zealand batting, opener Zunaed Siddqui and skipper Mohammad Ashraful smashed half-centuries to carve a memorable victory as the Tigers reached 202 for three with nearly five overs to spare.

Bangladesh have only to beat England and the West Indies to complete the full circle of victories against all Test nations.

The first ever defeat to Bangladesh effectively dashed New Zealand’s hopes of claiming the second spot behind Australia in the one-day rankings that could have guaranteed had they won the series 3-0.

Heavy overnight showers did not cause a second’s delay to the start of the series opener and Daniel Vettori’s inserted side never showed signs of recovering from a top order disaster on a wicket that gradually dried up for easy batting.

For Bangladesh it augured all well despite fears of more embarrassment after the ICL fallout that saw 14 top cricketers including seven national players joining the rebel Indian league.

And after a long time, the cornered Tigers played sensibly to dominate their opponents in all three departments of the game. Tamim Iqbal struck Kyle Mills’s first ball for four through mid-off but the left-hander chased a wide delivery by the same bowler to give Styris an uppish catch at the slip on 12.

His opening partner Zunaed, who came to his ninth ODI on the back of a total of 62 runs with an average of 7.75, finally put his acts together to notch his maiden ODI fifty — 85 off 137 deliveries — to shape the Tigers’ first ODI win against a Test nation since their World Cup defeat of South Africa on April 7, 2007.

Man-of-the-match Zunaed kept his head down during a 67-run association with Mushfiqur Rahim, who was promoted to number three and responded with a gritty 59-ball 30, before sharing 109 runs with Ashraful in the day’s most significant partnership.

The left and right combination of Zunaed and Ashraful never let the Kiwi attack settle on a line and even a spinner of Vettori’s class struggled, the left-armer failing to grab any success in nine overs.

Zunaed, who celebrates his 21st birthday on October 30, sent the ball eight times to the ropes but made most of two lives in the 40s — both times dropped by Styris off his own bowling — to complete 50 runs. Just eight runs short of victory, the youngster from Rajshahi who was looking very tired, was deceived by awkward bounce from Mark Gillespie to edge the ball to Oram behind point.

Ashraful’s captain’s knock once again proved why Bangladesh have won, although seldom, against the top teams. Almost all of his big innings are involved with Bangladesh wins and this time it was no exception.

Without offering a risky shot, he kept the scoreboard rolling with a quickfire 60 off 56 balls, laced with five fours and a magnificent six over mid-on off Vettori.

After missing a hook against Gillespie, Ashraful flicked the Kiwi pacer for two runs to reach his 15th ODI fifty in just 46 balls during the third Powerplay (39-43 overs) taken by the Bangladesh captain himself.

And it was typical that Ashraful punched his fists in the air moments after Shakib Al Hassan hit the winning single in the 46th over.

Earlier, despite a good start by openers Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum who put on 47 runs inside eight overs, the tourists were reduced to 79-6 with Mashrafe claiming the wickets of McCullum (14), Ryder (34) and Jamie How (7).

The Tigers vice-captain, whose 8-over first spell cost just 19 runs, varied the length to confuse the rival top-order which paid for going after bowling.

Shahadat Hossain, who came in as the first change after Syed Rasel’s two expensive overs (18 runs), sent back Ross Taylor while dangerman Scott Styris was trapped lbw when he misread an armer in Abdur Razzak’s very first over.

Left-arm spinner Razzak later added the scalps of Daniel Flynn and all-rounder Jacob Oram to end with 3-33.

Oram, however, survived a wild throw by Bangladesh wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim in a definite run-out chance on three and went on to repair the damage by top-scoring 57 off 89 balls with four fours and a six. He added 70 runs with captain Vettori (30 off 57 balls) for the seventh wicket that helped New Zealand go beyond the 200-mark.

Mashrafe came back to dismiss Mills and end with figures of 4-44 but he was denied off a fifth wicket when Mahmudullah Riyad floored a sitter in the second last ball of the innings.

Shakib Al Hassan took 1-30 while debutant Nayeem Islam was also similarly economic and impressive with his off-breaks.

The second one-dayer will take place at the same venue tomorrow.