Pleased with how the bowlers bowled today: Shanto
Bangladesh's first-ever ODI win over New Zealand in their own backyard was set up by some incredible fast bowling in Napier on Saturday.
Having come into the game on the back of two successive losses that saw them concede the three-match series, Bangladesh turned around in style to win the final game by nine wickets as they chased down a 99-run target with 209 balls to spare.
Pacers Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Shoriful Islam, and part-timer Soumya Sarkar were the main force behind the win, each of them getting three wickets apiece.
"The bowlers learned a lot. They were bowling in the good areas, and did not go looking for wickets. Pleased with how the bowlers bowled today," skipper Shanto, who scored a quickfire unbeaten 51 to propel the Tigers over the line, praised the bowlers for their efforts during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Sakib started proceedings with two early wickets inside the Powerplay, setting the tone for the Tigers.
The Kiwis could never recover from the early blow and Shoriful's excellent second spell, in which he took three crucial wickets including those of New Zealand skipper Tom Latham (21 off 34) and a well-set Will Young (26 off 43), broke the back of the hosts' batting line-up.
Sakib removed Tom Blundell (4 off 17) in the first delivery of his second spell before Soumya chipped in with the wickets of Josh Clarkson (16 off 23), Adam Milne (4 off 20), and Adithya Ashok (10 off 12) late in the innings as the hosts failed to put on any meaningful partnership.
Mustafizur castled William O'Rourke (1 off 5) to wrap things up.
Such a dominating bowling display came as a relief to Shanto, the stand-in skipper in the absence of regular captain Shakib Al Hasan, especially after the Tigers' below-par performance with the ball in the first two games. Despite taking two wickets in the first over, Bangladesh had let New Zealand pile up 239 for seven in a rain-curtailed 30-over-a-side game in the first ODI, which they lost by 44 runs. The Tigers' bowling was also toothless in the second game in Nelson in which the hosts assailed a 292-run target with seven wickets in hand.
"Really proud of the way the boys played this match. Before the series, we thought we could win this series. Could not win the first two matches but thankfully we could win today," he added.
Bangladesh are scheduled to play a three-match T20I series against the hosts, starting from December 27 at the same venue, and Shanto was looking forward to it but after some deserved relaxation and sightseeing of the city of Napier.
"This match gives us a lot of confidence but T20 is a different format, we will plan for it accordingly. (On exploring Napier) We are planning to go to some places but we have to keep in mind that we need to play T20s in a few days."