New Zealand –Bangladesh T20 Series
5th Match Played On 10 September 2021 at SBNCS, Dhaka
Brief Scorecard
New Zealand 161/5 in 20 Overs (Tom Latham 50*, Fin Allen 4, Henry Nicholls 20, Shariful 2/48, Afif Hossain 1/18, Nasum Ahmed 1/25, Taskin Ahmed 1/34)
Bangladesh 134/8 in 20 Overs (Afif Hossain 49*, Mahmudullh Riad 23, Mohammad Naim 23, Ajaj Patel 2/21, Scot Kuggleijn 2/23)
New Zealand Won The Match by 27 runs
Bangladesh Won The Series 3-2
Player of The Match: Tom Latham
Player of The Series: Tom Latham, Nasum Ahmed.
There is a saying all well that ends well. It did not end well for Bangladesh. As soon as the match was played on a slightly flatter wicket the real quality of Bangladesh cricket was exposed. New Zealand batting first secored 161/5 which was by far the highest score over the last 10 matches played at SBNCS. It was well beyond the reach of Bangladesh. All they could do was going as far as 134/8 and losing by 27 Runs.
The young Black Caps which was tagged B team and C Team in Bangladesh social media did well going down 2-3. Tom Latham scoring 2 half centuries ably demonstrated that he was by far the best batsman of the series. Nasum Ahmed also bowling consistently well also was the outstanding performer.
Bangladesh made 4 changes giving the remaining players of World Cup squad an opportunity for match practice. Excepting Shoriful, Soumya, Shamim and Taskin failed. The only mater of satisfaction that Afif played well scoring unbeaten 49 and Mahmudullah and Naim proved their consistency scoring 23 runs each. The lean patch of Mushfique is a bit of bother. Soumya and Shamim failing again raised few questions about their inclusion in the team. Wicket cannot be any excuse as it played reasonably well yesterday.
The aggressive intention of Black Cap was loudly announced right from the start as flamboyant Fin Allen unleashed savage attack on Bangladesh bowlers. His 43 in 24 deliveries on a slightly sorting wicket laid the foundation of the tourist’s innings. The first wicket partnership produced 58 in the power play, which was by far the highest partnership of the series. Shoriful craftly bounced back removing both the openers in his second spell. But by then the writings of the wall done. Tom Latham was there to steer the Black Caps to the highest score of the series scoring his second half century 50* Latham is the only player of the series scoring half century. New Zeeland finished at 161 /5.
The vulnerability of Bangladesh batting was exposed again as Liton, Soumya, Mushfique, Nurul Hasan and Shamim failed again. It was the first opportunity for Soumya and Shamim after remaining on the bench for 4 matches of the series. The lean form of Mushfique and Sohan is a bit of bother for the team Bangladesh. It was encouraging that Mahmudullah continued his consistency and Afif produced proved himself. His unbeaten 49 and 63 runs 5th wicket partnership was the only bright spot in otherwise ordinary effort of Bangladesh. New Zealand winning by 27 runs proved that the learning mission of relatively understrength Black Caps with no player of T20 World cup squad has been achieved. With a little bit of luck going their way the series could be 3-2 in their favor as well. This was a wakeup call of Team Bangladesh as their preparation for the world cup was not perfect. Bangladesh needs lot of improvement of their batting. World cup would be played on better surface. The two matches Bangladesh lost evidenced that Bangladesh is not ready to play against good bowling attack on true surfaces.
The only satisfaction is that Bangladesh won three series on a trot. Bangladesh never won three series like this. There was no justification for not giving any opportunities to Rubel, Aminul Islam Biplob, Mosaddeq and Taijul for playing in the series. Question can be raised why then they were kept in the squad?
Playing more matches prior to the World Cup Bangladesh remains the least prepared team of the ensuing World Cup.
BDST: 1217 HRS, SEP 11, 2021
SMS
