Rain helped, but Rubel made the difference - Anderson

New Zealand allrounder Corey Anderson has said that the rain interruption in the first ODI worked in their favour but Rubel Hossain's hat-trick made the difference once play resumed. Rubel's six-wicket haul got Bangladesh off to a good start, and made sure they defeated New Zealand for the fifth time in as many completed games.

"The rain actually brought it back to where we would have liked it," Anderson said. "It became a shortened game with the big hitters down the order. You cannot take anything away from Rubel, he bowled very well. Hat-tricks don't come around often. A cluster like that will always make a difference in the game. The hat-trick didn't do us any favours at all."

In his short career, Anderson has become the first victim of two hat-tricks. Sohag Gazi trapped him lbw in the first Test, before taking the wickets of BJ Watling and Doug Bracewell. This time it was Rubel who clean bowled Anderson in the 24th over to soon complete his hat-trick and changed the complexion of the game.

"We made the run rate come down a little bit," Anderson said. "I probably didn't need to play the shot I did. We thought we were going well, but that hat-trick put us a long way behind the eight-ball. He bowled smartly. We bowled cross-seamed and slower balls. He did the exact same thing [and a] couple popped off the gloves."

Before the rain or the hat-trick, New Zealand had other problems. Tim Southee gave them a good start but they let Mushfiqur Rahim and Naeem Islam off the hook, the pair adding 154 runs for the fourth wicket. The visitors pulled back the run rate considerably but still had to chase 265 runs in 50 overs.

Their frontline spinner Nathan McCullum was not very effective, giving 28 runs in four wicketless overs. Part-timers Anton Devcich and Kane Williamson too bowled nine unsuccessful overs between them.

"I don't know if it was Bangladesh's tactic to attack Nathan, but I think they got on top of us in the middle period," Anderson said. "We started standing up in the last 15 overs. We got them 30-40 runs short of what they would have liked."

But Anderson doesn't think alarm bells are ringing despite the loss. They have one day in between to turn it around, and they have chosen to rest on Wednesday, on the eve of the second ODI.

"I don't think we have to get worried about anything," he said. "Someone got a hat-trick, and fingers crossed he doesn't get it in the next one. I think we have to come back firing in the next game."