A 52-ball century from Colin Munro powered New Zealand to a comfortable 47-run victory over Bangladesh in the second T20I and also helped them take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and invited the hosts to bat first on a pitch that was tipped to assist the bowlers early on. And Mortaza’s decision paid dividends straightaway as he dismissed Luke Ronchi on the very first ball of the match. Looking to slash a wide delivery, the wicketkeeper-batsman failed to keep the ball grounded and hit it straight to the backward point fielder. A 42-run partnership between Munro and Kane Williamson then gave the hosts some breathing space before the New Zealand skipper was sent back by Shakib-al-Hasan.
Four runs later, the Black Caps suffered another setback as Mosaddek Hossain Saikat castled the dangerous Corey Anderson to leave the hosts reeling at 46 for 3 in the first six overs.
However, the quick wickets did not deter Munro as he launched an amazing counter-attack to push the visitors on backfoot. The left-handed batsman made his intentions clear in the very first over by hitting a one bounce four over the bowler’s head. In the very next over, he hit Rubel Hossain for two consecutive boundaries before launching Mortaza for a six in the third over. The 29-year-old continued his assault and reached his fifty in 31 balls. He was ably supported by new-comer Tom Bruce who remained unbeaten on 59 off 39 balls as both shared a mammoth 163-run partnership for the fourth wicket. In the meantime, Munro became only the third Kiwi batsman after Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill to reach the three-digit mark in T20Is when he took a quick single in the 16th over. His amazing innings was studded with seven fours and as many maximums.
Munro’s innings came to an end in the 17th over and New Zealand were looking well set to squander the great platform after losing some quick wickets but Bruce held firm from one end and helped his team to post a huge total of 195.
In reply, the visitors had a poor start as Imrul Kyes departed without opening his account. Mortaza’s side was staring down the barrel in the fifth over when Shakib-al-Hasan chipped a drive straight into Jimmy Neesham’s hand at extra cover. Before him, the experienced Tamim Iqbal had returned to the hut after a horrible mix-up led to his run-out. Sabbir Rahman and Soumya Sarkar then pulled the visitors right back into the match by adding 68 runs for the fourth wicket from only 40 balls as Bangladesh crossed the 100-run mark in the 11th over. However, Sarkar’s dismissal opened the floodgates as they lost their last seven wickets for 44 runs to be dismissed for 148 in the 19th over.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 195 for 7 (Munro 101, Rubel 3-37) beat Bangladesh 148 (Sabbir 48, Sodhi 3-36) by 47 runs