New Zealand end tour with Twenty20 win

Tourists claim 15-run victory against Bangladesh in one-off match.

DHAKA: Colin Munro and Anton Devcich hit half-centuries and Tim Southee grabbed three wickets as New Zealand ended their Bangladesh tour with a 15-run victory in the one-off Twenty20 match in Dhaka yesterday.

Munro remained unbeaten on 73 off 39 balls after debutant Devcich had smashed 59 off 31 balls to lift the Black Caps to 204 for five, their second-highest total in Twenty20 cricket behind the 214 for six against Australia in 2010.

The tourists, beaten in all three One-Day Internationals after a drawn two-Test series, restricted Bangladesh to 189 for nine in front of approximately 35,000 disappointed home fans at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.



“I think in the first innings we batted very well,” said Kyle Mills, who led the tourists in the absence of the injured Brendon McCullum.

“Our opening took the game by the scruff of the neck, and then Ross Taylor (28) and Munro crafted beautiful innings. If you put a decent total on the board like 200, you’re reasonably confident at the half-way mark.”

Bangladesh were left to rue shoddy catching after debutant Al-Amin Hossain dropped Devcich, who was then on six, in Mashrafe Mortaza’s first over.“We lost the match because we could not bowl according to our plans, especially in the powerplay overs,” said Mushfiqur.

“We gave 20 extra runs and that cost us the game. If we could have restricted them to 180-185 runs it could have been a different ball game.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2013.

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