New Zealand defeated Bangladesh in the second T20I at McLaren Park in Napier to clinch the series with one game remaining. Bangladesh were chasing a revised target of 170 runs from 16 overs in a rain-curtailed match, but they could muster only 142 runs with the loss of seven wickets and faced another series defeat after losing the ODI series 0-3.
Mohammad Naim and Soumya Sarkar tried their best to keep Bangladesh in the game and they were well on their way to push their side closer to the target by halfway stage. But, as soon as they fell in a span of two overs, Bangladesh batting collapsed and the hosts bowling line up squeezed them to register a big win.
Bangladesh started decently with both Naim and Litton Das finding an early boundary against Tim Southee and Hamish Bennett amid high-octane drama over the openers having no idea about the target they were chasing. There were wrong data inserted for DLS calculation match officials delayed the information to Bangladesh side.
However, as soon as they got the information that they had to chase a mammoth 170 runs after the match was reduced from 20 over-game, Litton Das mistimed a pull shot and allowed Glenn Phillips to come in the reckoning once again.
The comeback man Adam Milne was assigned the third over in place of skipper Southee himself and he started with a full ball that Soumya Sarkar dispatched through the off side. Milne bounced back with a thunderbolt to beat Soumya Sarkar for pace on the very next ball.
Bennett’s second over proved to be costly for New Zealand as both Sarkar and Naim started opening their shoulder in quest of making the powerplay count. Naim clobbered two back to back boundaries off him and took 11 runs in total to put Bangladesh back on track.
Meanwhile, Sarkar waited for his opportunity to arrive at the end. He fancied his chances against Sodhi and plundered him for a couple of sixes and a four to take 199 runs off his first over. Naim upped the ante from the other end and Milne’s raw pace was used against him for a 2o run-over as Bangladesh saw a sniff to put New Zealand.
Having seen both the left-handers enjoying the leg spinner Ish Sodhi and pace on the ball, Southee brought Glenn Phillips to tighten things up with his off-breaks. He repaid the faith and went only for 4 runs in his first over. Southee knows Sodhi’s wicket-taking abilities and hence persisted with him for another over and it yielded only five runs.
Two quiet overs put pressure on batsmen to go big and although Sarkar took Phillips for a boundary in his next over to bring up a 25-ball-fifty, the required run rate was surging all the time.
Tim Southee returned to send Sarkar back to the pavilion and start a slide of Bangladesh batting order. Sarkar was making room to hit him over the off side but a change of pace on stumps forced him to play it towards the long-on and Adam Milne was eager to accept the mistimed shot.
Skipper Mahmudullah was the next man in and he started with a bang against Sodhi, hitting him over his head and reverse sweeping for four. However, more of Phillips’s magic was remaining for the night as a desperate Naim hit him straight to the hands of long-off to derail Bangladesh’s chase.
Bangladesh could not come back from the position as Milne came back with his third over to jolt them further with the twin strikes of Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain to push the tourists so far off the track.
Then, Southee came back again to wrap up Bangladesh’s efforts with the wicket of Mohammad Mithun and they fell short of the target by 28 runs.
Earlier, a lower order run feast by the pair of Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchell propelled New Zealand to 173/5 in 17.5 overs before the rain arrived to stop the onslaught for Bangladesh bowlers.
Phillips came out to bat when Martin Guptill and Finn Allen departed after providing Blackcaps with a rapid start. The duo added 55 runs in the powerplay to set a magnificent platform for the lower-order batsmen to carry on.
However, the hosts suffered a mini batting collapse as none among Devon Conway and Will Young could stretch their explosive innings to something substantial. Then, the wicket of Mark Chapman in the 14th over brought the duo of Phillips and Mitchell together at the crease.
They wasted no time in sending bowlers over the boundary lines as the next two overs yielded 26 runs. There was no respite in sight for Bangladesh bowers and Mohammad Saifuddin was taken to the cleaners by Mitchell with three consecutive boundaries in the 17th over.
Taskin Ahmed was treated in a similar manner by Phillips in the next over, hitting him for three boundaries off the first five balls before the rain started pouring down at McLaren Park. The rain got heavier with time and the match resumed only after the New Zealand innings was abandoned leaving Bangladesh an unknown target at the start of the innings.
New Zealand will be delighted to pocket the T20I series against Bangladesh, having clean swept the tourists in the ODI series that preceded the ongoing three-match long series.