BAN v NZ World T20 Review: New Zealand rout Bangladesh by 75 runs

New Zealand continued their dominance in the World T20 after they routed the Bangladeshis in their final Super 10 stage match at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. A collective effort from the Kiwi bowlers saw their team win the match by a superb margin of 75 runs.

The Bangladesh team, chasing 146 runs to win simply could not manage to survive against the opposition bowler and were rattled effortlessly. Ish Sodhi (3/21) and Grant Elliot (3/12) took three wickets each while Nathan McCullum (1/6), Mitchell McClenaghan (1/3) and Mitchell Santner (1/16) all took a wicket apiece.

Kane Williamson won the toss for the 4^th straight time and opted to bat first on a brown, dry strip.  Williamson opened with a new batting partner today. The skipper decided to rest his in-form opener Martin Guptill and came out to bat with Henry Nicolls.

The skipper began well by hitting his counterpart for two boundaries off the last two deliveries in the opening over. But, it didn’t take long for Bangladesh to strike as Mustafizur Rahman foxed Nicolls with a lovely off cutter off the last ball of the 4th over. Colin Munro and Williamson then batted for a brief stand of 32 runs before Mustafizur Rahman snapped up the wicket of Williamson who departed for a well-made 42 off 32 balls.

Munro then partnered with Ross Taylor to form the last worthy stand of their batting innings. The pair put on 42 runs for the 3rd wicket. The pair had a challenging time facing the Bangladeshi bowlers who never gave away any chance for them to score runs quickly. In the 15th over of the match, Seamer Al-Amin Hossain ensured that the pair is broken before they turn lethal. Munro’s attempt to slog did not work as Hossain’s straight delivery smashed onto the his middle stump.

The game from here on tilted into the bowlers favor. Mortaza got better of Corey Anderson in the following over. Mustafizur Rahman came to bowl his second spell and bamboozled the Kiwis, chipping in with three more wickets to become the youngest bowler in World T20s to take a five haul. The tail enders had no idea about how to deal with his cutters. In spite all this, The Black Caps still managed to reach a functional score of 145/8 in 20 overs.

Batting second, the team suffered a big blow in the 2^nd over when Tamim Iqbal lost his wicket. His Mohammad Mithun tried for quick single but the left-hander hesitated before finally taking off. However, a strong throw from Corey Anderson from the deep caught the batsman short of the crease.

Williamson kept mixing his bowlers. He opened with Nathan McCullum and Corey Anderson then introduced his trump card Mitchell Santner to bowl the third over of the match. He made his fourth bowling change inside the powerplay after he introduced Mitchell McClenaghan for the 5th over. The left arm seamer brought the second success after he clean bowled Mohammad Mithun. An over later, Sabbir Rahman fell to the spin of McCullum.

The wickets began tumbling quickly after this point. Leg spinner Ish Sodhi and military medium Grant Elliot cleaned up the middle order and the tailenders. No Bangladeshi batsman could show any resistance. Only Shuvagata Home (16 from 17 balls) could do anything worth with the bat as his partner fell from the other end. Eventually, the Bangla Tigers bundled out for a meager 70 runs, losing the match by 75 runs.

Today’s game, however, has no impact on Group 2 as New Zealand had already qualified for the semis while Bangladesh have been knocked out of the tournament.

Brief Scores:

New Zealand: 145/8 in 20 overs (Kane Williamson 42; Mutafizur Rahman 5/22)

Bangladesh: 70 all out (Shuvgata Hom 16; Grant Elliott 3/12)

Man of the Match: Kane Williamson