Tigers seek to end losing streak in dead rubber

Bangladesh take on New Zealand in the third and final ODI in Napier tomorrow, hoping to salvage something from the already conceded series. The game will begin at 4:00 am (Bangladesh time).

The visitors fell short with their batting efforts in both games while bar Shoriful Islam, the rest of their bowling unit failed to fire.

The top-order not producing runs has been a recent issue, but in New Zealand conditions there have been quite a few batting collapses from the Tigers -- who are yet to win an ODI match against the Black Caps at their den after 18 attempts.

In the opening game, New Zealand capitalised on a rain-affected 30-over-per-side game, with Bangladesh's front-line pacers each having already completed five of their six-over quotas before rain. It resulted in a spinner and Soumya Sarkar operating in the death overs as the home side put up a massive score. Bangladesh batters struggled against the steep bounce and could not get close to target.

The next game saw the top-order disappoint once again but Soumya, who opened the innings, hit a career-best 169 to go past Sachin Tendulkar, attaining the highest individual score by an Asian batter in New Zealand. However, the rest of the batters apart from Mushfiqur Rahim misfired while Soumya steered Bangladesh to 291. Then the bowlers troubled New Zealand very little as the series was lost.

New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra felt Bangladesh "have been on top at some point of the [two] matches" and "are still a very good team on their day".

"They [Bangladesh] have shown moments in each of these two games… The way Soumya Sarkar played was unbelievable. Then in the first game they had us at two for four, so they were able to put pressure on us. So it is important for us to not let up and again do what we do well." Rachin said yesterday.

Bangladesh team management introduced two changes last game, dropping Mustafizur Rahman in favour of Tanzim Hasan Sakib while Afif Hossain was idelined to make room for a specialist bowler in Rishad Hossain. This time the pacers will have to step up with the McLean Park being a venue – last staged an ODI in 2019 when New Zealand beat Bangladesh by eight wickets – where teams batting first had lost four of the last five matches.