Latham praises Guptill, Boult as New Zealand thrash Bangladesh

New Zealand captain Tom Latham called it ‘awesome’ as star performers Trent Boult and Martin Guptill powered the Black Caps to an emphatic eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in the opening one-day international in Dunedin on Saturday.

With swing king
Boult moving the ball both ways, New Zealand dismissed Bangladesh for a
mediocre 131 and a blistering cameo with the bat by Guptill saw them cut down
the target with more than 28 overs to spare.

In New Zealand’s
first ODI in 12 months, Boult took four for 27 while Guptill blazed away for 38
off 19 deliveries.

“We haven’t
played for a while and it was about setting the tone, winning the toss and
bowling and I thought Trent and Matt Henry did that great, and for us to chase
130 in 20-odd overs was awesome,” captain Tom Latham said.

“And we know
how destructive he (Guptill) can be when he plays like that, and to break the
back of the chase was awesome and for the guys to finish it off then was a pretty
clinical performance all round.”

All but two of
Guptill’s 38 runs came from boundaries with four sixes and three fours before
Taskin Ahmed found a faint edge and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim completed the
dismissal.

Devon Conway in
his maiden ODI was the other wicket to fall for 27 while opener Henry Nicholls
was left 49 not out.

Nicholls was denied his 12th half-century when another debutant Will Young (11 not out) brought up the winning runs with a boundary.

When Bangladesh lost
the toss and were sent into bat opener and skipper Tamim Iqbal immediately
looked to dominate with a six off Boult’s third ball and a four off the second
over from Matt Henry.

But on a ground
where the average winning score is in excess of 300, the tourists were soon in
trouble when Boult took two wickets in his third over.

He started with
the dismissal of Iqbal, trapping him lbw with a straight delivery as the
Bangladesh skipper waited for the ball to swing.

New batsman Soumya
Sarkar went three balls later without scoring and Bangladesh never recovered.

When the tourists
were all out in the 42nd over, Iqbal said he knew 131 was nowhere near enough.

“There were
too many soft dismissals. No doubt, they bowled extremely well but we played
some loose shots. We have ourselves to blame,” he said.

Bangladesh came to
New Zealand fresh from a 3-0 series win over the West Indies but while six
Bangladesh batsmen reached double figures they did not persevere with
Mahmadullah’s 27 from 54 deliveries the top score

Mushfiqur Rahim
with 23 was the only other batsman to get past 20.

In addition to
Boult’s four-wicket haul, Jimmy Neesham took two for 27 and Mitchell Santner
finished with two for 23.

Neesham was also
central to a third wicket when he spilled a return chance from Mahmudullah only
for the ball to deflect on to the stumps and run-out non-striker Mohammad
Mithun who was backing up too far.

The second match
in the three-match series is in Christchurch on Tuesday.

Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/sports/2021/03/latham-praises-guptill-boult-as-new-zealand-thrash-bangladesh/