Excellent victory for New Zealand as they thumped hosts Bangladesh by a margin of 27 runs in the fifth and final T20I to end the 5-match series on a high! A superb start to their innings with a 50-run opening stand coupled with an unbeaten fifty from their skipper helped them post a competitive total on the board before their bowlers restricted Bangladesh well below the target!
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| Image Credits: Cricket Times |
On a better batting surface, New Zealand have done well having elected to bat first! A superb start from Finn Allen (41 off 24) coupled with middle-order support from Henry Nicholls (20 off 21) and Cole McConchie (17* off 10) and an amazing unbeaten half-century from skipper Tom Latham (50* off 37) helped New Zealand get to 161/5 in 20 overs.
Shoriful Islam, though picked up 2 wickets, had gone for 48 runs from his 4 overs. On the other hand, Taskin Ahmed conceded 18 runs bowling the 19th over of NZ's innings! Kiwis scored 28 runs from the last two overs and that proved out to be the difference between these two sides in this match!
Chasing 162 to win, Afif Hossain emerged out to be the star performer for the hosts with an unbeaten 49*. But he couldn't take his team over the line. There were a couple of scores in the 20s (Mohammad Naim - 23, Mahmudullah - 23) but none of them got going in this tricky run-chase!
Each of the six kiwis bowlers who were used in this innings bagged at least a wicket each with Ajaz Patel and Scott Kuggeleijn picking up two wickets each. Ajaz Patel has been once again the star performer for the visitors with bowling figures of 2/21 in his 4 overs.
New Zealand skipper Tom Latham has been adjudged as the Player of the Match for his third match. He also shared the Player of the Series award along with Bangladesh's spinner Nasum Ahmed.
Brief Scores: New Zealand - 161/5 in 20 overs (Tom Latham - 50*, Shoriful Islam - 2/48) defeated Bangladesh - 134/8 in 20 overs (Afif Hossain - 49*, Ajaz Patel - 2/21) by a margin of 27 runs
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