by The Professor » Thu Nov 03, 2016 11:34 am
On this day in 2013 Bangladesh defeat New Zealand for one of their best series in their history.
Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl. New Zealand took advantage of this and soon had racked up the highest score at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium - 307.
The openers, Anton Devchich and Tom Latham, put on 66 runs in the first 13 overs. This was broken when Devchich played a poor shot off the bowling of Mahmudullah which was gratefully received by Abdur Razzak.
Ross Taylor was the trailblazer for the New Zealanders with a 93 ball 107. He was ably assisted with 85 from Colin Munro in a fourth wicket partnership worth 130 runs.
Taylor's innings held together the death overs with his boundary packed score. He and Munro cleverly exploited the Bangladesh field placement to tease and manipulate Mushfiqur Rahman's strategies. The pair were also helped by some woeful bowling - especially from Sohag Gazi and Mashrafe Mortaza.
In the chase, Shamsur Rahman put down the foundations with a priceless 96 runs. He and his opening partner, Ziaur Rahman, regularly found the boundary and seemed to be targeting Mitchell McClenaghan. Ziaur was out first to that very bowler on 22.
There was a period of concern around the 20th over when Ziaur's replacement, Mominul Haque, and Mushfiqur both went within five balls of each other. This rendered Bangladesh 129/3. Shamsur then joined forces with Nassem Islam with whom he scored 75 runs and pushed the Bangladeshis towards victory. Shamsur was eventually out in the 34th over, caught behind off the bowling of Corey Anderson.
Mahmudullah and Nasir Hossain took Bangladesh to the brink of victory - but the former fell with two overs to go. Hossain and Gazi took Bangladesh over the line.
Bangladesh will have a lot to smile about after having beaten New Zealand 3-0 across the series.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."