Guptill, fast bowlers help New Zealand march to 1-0

New Zealand v Bangladesh, 1st ODI, Napier February 13, 2019

New Zealand 233 for 2 (Guptill 117*, Nicholls 53) beat Bangladesh 232 (Mithun 62, Saifuddin 41, Boult 3-40, Santner 3-45) by eight wickets

Pace, swing and Martin Guptill's 15th ODI hundred set up New Zealand's eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first ODI in Napier. After Trent Boult led the home side with early wickets that derailed the visitors, Guptill ensured the modest chase didn't see any hiccups. New Zealand finished the 233 chase with 33 balls to spare.

Guptill now has two ODI centuries in 2019, with six underwhelming innings in between in which he averaged 10.33. He added 103 for the opening stand with Henry Nicholls, who scored 53, before his 96-run unbroken stand for the third wicket with Ross Taylor saw them home.

But it was how Boult and Matt Henry bowled in the first 10 overs that nearly decided the outcome. They took the first four wickets before Lockie Ferguson and Mitchell Santner provided support with five wickets between them. Boult added a third in the 49th over to close out the Bangladesh innings.

A Bangladesh record eighth-wicket stand, worth 84 runs, between Mohammad Mithun and Mohammad Saifuddin lifted Bangladesh from 131 for 7 in the 29th over. Mithun steered them with 62 off 90 balls, that featured five fours, and Saifuddin scored 41 off 58 balls with three fours. Theirs was a far more selective approach than the one allowed by Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman and Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

The procession of poor shots followed the dismissals of Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das who were defeated by good movement and pace. But Soumya, after hitting five fours and a six in his first 21 balls, needlessly top-edged Henry two deliveries after Mushfiqur had chopped on a Boult delivery that held its off-stump line.

Mahmudullah was caught at slip as he kept looking for boundaries during his short stay. Sabbir lost his balance while trying to sweep Santner, only to be smartly stumped by Tom Latham while Mehidy, who had also started well with three fours and a six, top-edged trying to sweep Santner.

Mithun and Saifuddin hardly took risks to strike five boundaries between them in 15.4 overs, although they maintained a healthy run rate of 5.30. Both got out trying to slog towards the end, but only after taking Bangladesh towards a decent score.

Guptill and Nicholls started off relatively slowly as they hit just three fours and a six in the first Powerplay to put on 42 on the board. Mushfiqur dropped Guptill, on 47, off Mehidy in the 21st over as the umpire didn't give a wide to the delivery that went down the leg side and HotSpot replays later showed a faint mark on the bat.

Nine deliveries later, however, Nicholls was bowled when an inside edge deflected off the pads and rolled on to the stumps, before captain Kane Williamson was given lbw to Mahmudullah for 11 after Bangladesh reviewed the on-field not out call.

Guptill, who picked up most of his runs on the leg side, didn't change the pace of his innings one bit as he steadied towards the century. He reached the landmark in the 41st over with a single off Sabbir, before hitting Mustafizur Rahman for two fours as he freed his arms against anything slightly wide. Most of his sixes came on the leg side, particularly the pick-up shot against Mashrafe Mortaza in what turned out to be the last over of the chase to level scores before he hit the winning runs.

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