Black Caps ease to seventh straight home series win

By Kris Shannon

The Black Caps have eased past Bangladesh by seven wickets to clinch a seventh straight ODI series win at home.

Chasing 291 after Soumya Sarkar blazed a magnificent 169 at Saxton Oval in Nelson, the hosts’ top three ensured their side cruised to the target without complication.

After scoring a century to lead a 44-run victory in the series opener on Sunday, Will Young added another good knock of 89 as part of an aggressive opening stand with Rachin Ravindra (45 off 33).

Henry Nicholls then shrugged off a string of middling innings across formats to notch 95 — his second-highest ODI score — and help Tom Latham’s side complete the chase with 22 balls to spare.

“The way the openers set the innings up was outstanding,” the stand-in skipper told TVNZ. “They played their natural games and scored quick enough at a run a ball throughout those first 10 overs.

“Then those two partnerships (for the first and second wicket) to put us in position were very clinical.”

The Black Caps have never lost an ODI at home to Bangladesh, while their last series defeat by any opponent in New Zealand came when India triumphed 4-1 in 2019.

Both streaks were extended without six frontline players, regular white-ball captain Kane Williamson among those resting after a run to the semifinals at the ODI World Cup was followed by a drawn test series in Bangladesh.

That group’s absence has seen chances seized by Nicholls — who was among the test batters to struggle in difficult conditions earlier this month — and Young.

“Those guys probably haven’t had the opportunities they would’ve liked,” Latham said. “But to come in and score straight away is very pleasing — and the way they’ve gone about it.”

The duo played positively throughout their respective innings, any run-rate pressure eased by Ravindra’s fast start.

The young opener fell to a two-ball duck during the first match in Dunedin but this afternoon replicated flashes of his explosive form from the World Cup, flourishing particularly through the legside against shorter-pitched bowling.

That propensity did eventually lead to his dismissal as Rishad Hossain hauled in a fine outfield catch from another pull off Hasan Mahmud, ending a 77-run opening stand in the 11th over.

But Nicholls and Young then came together to begin a match-high 128-run partnership from 131 balls, the contest all but decided by the time the latter fell to Mahmud while chasing consecutive tons.

Nicholls missed out on what would have been a second ODI century but Latham (34no) finished things off, overhauling a total that was more than the skipper would have liked.

“We probably conceded a little bit [too many],” he said. “The position we were in after 10 overs, we thought we were on top, then they had a couple of good partnerships and Soumya Sarkar played a fantastic innings.

“On this ground, when the wicket isn’t offering a lot for the bowlers, it can be hard to stop.”

That was certainly true of Sarkar, who set a new high score by a subcontinental player in New Zealand, going past Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar.

His 169 off 151 balls was also the best by a Bangladesh batter away from home and fell just short of their all-time record, the 176 plundered by Litton Das against Zimbabwe in 2020.

Sarkar was dropped twice — on 51 by Ravindra and 92 by Young — but his shotmaking was electric throughout, capitalising on a flat track to mash 22 fours and two sixes.

The opener’s innings was a lone hand, however, as Jacob Duffy (3-51) found a bit of extra pace to take a couple of key wickets and finish with the best figures of a brief ODI career.

Adithya Ashok turned in a promising debut performance, the 21-year-old legspinner better than a return of 1-63 would suggest. Long touted as this country’s most promising tweaker to emerge since Daniel Vettori, Ashok was particularly in command of his line and length on a surface that offered nothing, rewarded with a maiden wicket in his final over.

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