Tigers finally broke the winning draught against New Zealand in T20 format at their home when they kicked off the three-match series with five wickets victory on Wednesday.
From the very first over Tigers bowlers tipped off, they were going to break the more than a decade’s T20 jinx on New Zealand soil when Mahdi Hasan bowled the opener Tim Seifert with the fourth ball of the innings.
Held at the at McLean Park in Napier, Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto after winning the toss chose to field first and hugely impressive Mahedi Hasan and Shoriful shelled with their firing initial spells to send off three batters just for one run by 1.3 overs and four for 20 by 4.4overs.
The New Zealand batters soon ran into trouble at the early stage, as Mahedi Hasan and Shoriful getting rid of Tim Seifer, Finn Allen, Glenn Phillips and Daryl Mitchel just to destroy the Kiwis top orders taking four wickets for 20 runs.
After quick departure of three batters Daryl Mitchel and Mark Chapman tired to strike back with a counterattacking approach that looked boosted the momentum hosts’ way, as 28-ball 30-run stand going to set the shape for New Zealand to continue attacking. Daryl Mitchel and Chapman developing the strength of character but after Rishad joining with Hasan broke the partnership with taking Chapman’s wicket to reduce the hosts five for 50.
James Neesham and captain Mitchell Santner took over from there going after each bowler as 41 runs came off from 31 balls, the highest partnership in the New Zealand innings. But Shoriful struck again to halt the sixth wickets stand with sending off Santner for 23 off 22 balls.
Mustafizur Rahman, who was wicketless in his first spell, clobbered to stop Neesham, looking on fierce mood with a 28-ball 48 that was the highest contribution in the New Zealand innings.
After losing seven wickets for 110 runs, Adam Milne along with Tim Southee and Ish Sodhi added 34 runs to set 135 target for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh were off to a mixed start when a realistic prospects of a successful chase target of 135 looked briefly tricky for the Tigers, when Tim Southee struck with his first and the fourth ball of second over of the innings. Southee sent off opener Rony Talukder for only 10 runs when the scoreboard reading only 13 runs.
But opener Litton Das kept his cool and remained unbeaten to anchor the chase and steer Bangladesh to take a 1-0 lead against New Zealand in the three-match T20 series.
Litton was very careful when he saw his batting partners getting starts and losing their wickets prematurely. Bangladesh lost two wickets for 38 and reduced to three for 67, as the captain NAzmul Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Towhid Hridoy and Afif Hosssain left crease in regular interval.
The No seven batter Mahedi Hasan joined Litton and he did not take any further chances and charged to finish with an unbeaten 36-ball 42.
