Teams are often advised these days that Bangladesh isn’t that old side anymore which crumbles under pressure. The metamorphosis of Bangladesh into an impressive ODI outfit has been a fascinating tale of this sport in the last couple of years. The sheer passion, integrated with the right skills has been a magical combination for the Bangladeshis. They proved the two things once again after an emphatic and magical performance over New Zealand in Cardiff.
Doing well to restrict New Zealand to 265 on a decent deck for batting, Bangladesh were rocked early when in form batsman Tamim Iqbal was dismissed for a duck. At 33-4 in the 12th over, things seemed over for the Tigers before Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah combined in what can be termed as the most important partnership in Bangladesh’s cricketing history.
The duo batted with extreme intelligence to keep the scoreboard ticking over by playing risk-free cricket. They brought up their centuries and eventually won their side the game to create history, at the very ground, they defeated Australia in 2005. Post the defeat, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lauded the Bangladeshis for their efforts.
“To be fair, on that surface we felt it was a scrappy total to get. If we bowled well, we could make it difficult. The boys were outstanding with the new ball. But we left a few runs out there. A long way from a perfect performance today,” Williamson said.
“Credit to the way Bangladesh played. That partnership from Shakib and Mahmudullah was simply superb. Something around 285-290 would have been very competitive. Fairly similar surface to the previous game we played on, even though it was a new one.”