After a late start to the match in rain before the toss, rain also hit New Zealand’s innings twice. That reduced the length of the match. Even then, Tom Latham and Will Young did not let the rain become the main character. They brought big capital to the team on a small field in four-six rains.
New Zealand scored 239 for 7 in the first ODI in Dunedin in 30 overs on Sunday. Latham scored 92 off 77 balls and Young scored 105 off 84 balls. Bangladesh target 245 in 30 overs in rain law.
Latham-Young tied the pair after 2 wickets fell for the team’s 5 runs. To break that pair, Bangladesh has to be completely unlucky.
The duo added 171 runs off 145 balls for the third wicket amid two spells of rain interruption. Latham made 92 off 77 balls when Mehedi Hassan Miraj got out while slogging. However, Mustafizur Rahman could have returned him to 18 runs. Soumya Sarkar could not collect a difficult catch by jumping at slip. Later he missed a difficult opportunity even for himself.
Latham-Ying settled with time after losing wickets early on. Gradually the wings began to match. Despite the rain, the wicket was a batting heaven, crossing the boundary in small boundaries was not a problem.
The suffering of Bangladesh playing with four specialist bowlers in the group of these two has become evident very quickly.
Soumya did well in her first three overs, but Kharuche fell in the fourth over. Mirage got one wicket but Kharuche was there from the start. Captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto started panting after filling the quota of regular pacers. In that opportunity, the Kiwis started to increase the runs easily.
