Black Caps crash to historic loss

By Kris Shannon

On the verge of equalling a historic winning streak, the Black Caps crashed to a rather more unwanted record.

New Zealand were skittled for 98 before Bangladesh completed a nine-wicket victory in today’s third ODI at McLean Park, the series already won but the battle lost in humbling fashion.

It was the first time Bangladesh had beaten the Black Caps in an ODI in New Zealand, coming just shy of two years since their breakthrough test triumph.

It was also the Black Caps’ first defeat by any opponent in a completed ODI at home since February 2019, ending a 17-game winning run. That saw them fall one short of levelling the all-time mark, set by Australia midway through the last decade.

“We were completely outplayed,” Tom Latham said. “We weren’t able to absorb enough pressure through those early stages and we just managed to keep losing wicket after wicket.”

That was especially true when the stand-in skipper fell and the Black Caps slumped from 58-2 to 98 all out, good bowling combined with galling shot selection to see them dismissed for double digits for the ninth time in ODIs.

Bangladesh did make the most of helpful conditions as the seam trio of Shoriful Islam, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Soumya Sarkar had the ball moving, each snaring three wickets.

But the hosts’ batters never displayed the necessary application or made the requisite adjustments, playing like a team in a hurry to take an 11-month break from ODI cricket.

The Black Caps’ previous lowest total against Bangladesh had been 162 — their lowest at home was 251 — and neither mark looked like being threatened once top-scorer Will Young had departed for 26 in the 19th over.

The opener had earlier become the sixth Black Caps batter to score 1000 runs in a calendar year, joining Daryl Mitchell who passed the milestone at the World Cup, but was understandably not in a celebratory mood.

“It was tough work,” Young told TVNZ. “It’s just a bit of a shame, really. The sun’s finally shining for a cricket game in the Hawke’s Bay and we put on a show like that.

“[The pitch] had good pace in it, the ball was swinging and every now and then it would jump up as well, so it did make life tough.”

Bangladesh experienced no such troubles on a surface whose grass covering made it atypical for McLean Park. The tourists struggled more with local wildlife than the bowling attack, as Sarkar was forced to retire with a bug in his eye.

But opening partner Anamul Haque (37 off 33) and skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto (51no off 42) raced to the meagre target inside 16 overs, forcing the Black Caps bowlers off their length and feasting on anything short.

“When you’ve got 100 on the board, we had the idea that Bangladesh were going to come out and play their shots,” Latham said.

The teams will now play a three-match T20 series, starting on December 27 and completing the set after the drawn test series in Bangladesh.

Latham won’t be part of that squad and neither will the three debutants the Black Caps blooded during the ODIs. But although Josh Clarkson, Will O’Rourke and Adithya Ashok will now wait for another chance, with the next scheduled ODIs not until November, Latham pointed to their presence as one of the series’ main positives.

“Any series when you blood some new guys into the team with a look to the future is always exciting,” he said. “We’re building depth, which is important, and we don’t play a lot of one-day cricket for a year now. So this was about having a look at a few guys and seeing what they’re got, and it was great to get some experience into them.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission