Young and Latham power New Zealand to 1-0 lead in rain-hit match

30 overs New Zealand 239 for 7 (Young 105, Latham 92, Shoriful 2-28) beat Bangladesh 200 for 9 (Anamul 43, Clarkson 2-24, Sodhi 2-35, Milne 2-46) by 44 runs (DLS method)

A power-packed partnership of 171 for the third wicket between centurion Will Young and captain Tom Latham led the way for New Zealand to take a 1-0 lead over Bangladesh in the rain-hit first ODI in Dunedin. Chasing a stiff and revised target of 245 in 30 overs, Bangladesh had no big scores or partnerships to set up their chase.

It looked like they had a chance when they were 80 for 2 in the 12th over but once debutant Josh Clarkson removed the well-set Anamul Haque and Litton Das in consecutive overs, and Rachin Ravindra had Mushfiqur Rahim caught behind, Bangladesh never recovered from 103 for 5 apart from some late fireworks from Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz.

New Zealand got off to a rocky start after rain had initially reduced the game to 46 overs a side after the toss, when Shoriful Islam found the edges of Rachin Ravindra and Henry Nicholls to dismiss them for ducks in the first over. From 5 for 2, Young and Latham began the recovery but Latham was dropped on 18 when Soumya Sarkar put down a catch above his head at second slip off Mustafizur Rahman. The innings was interrupted twice by rain; first in the 14th over, when it became a 40-overs-per-side contest, and then in the 20th over with New Zealand 108 for 2. Both batters had just opened up with consecutive fours from Latham against Mehidy and Young against Mustafizur that pushed the run rate towards 5.50.

As soon as Latham brought up 4000 ODI runs and his 50, off 58 balls, came the longest rain interruption in the 20th over that reduced the game to a 30-over contest. After play resumed, Latham and Young hit Soumya for two sixes in an over and Latham also launched Mehidy into the car park over long-on before clobbering Soumya for three consecutive fours on the leg side. Young, after raising his fifty of 61 balls, accelerated by swatting Shoriful for two fours in an over behind square on the leg side that took them to 159 for 2 with six overs left.

Running out of options, Bangladesh brought on Afif but he too got belted for two sixes before Mehidy finally gave them some respite by having Latham chop on for 92 off 77. Mark Chapman attacked from his first ball, hitting two sixes and a four in his first six balls, while Young raced from 72 to 89 in one over with four more fours off Soumya. In a dramatic 29th over from Mehidy, Young smacked a four and a six to get to 99 before Chapman was run out and Young reached his third ODI hundred off just 82 balls. Bangladesh conceded only eight runs and affected three run-outs in the final over, but New Zealand had put up a formidable 239 by hammering 131 runs off the last 64 balls after the last rain break.

Set a revised target of 245, Bangladesh lost Soumya for a duck when he was caught behind off Adam Milne in the first over before Anamul and Najmul Hossain Shanto steered them towards 50. Ish Sodhi, however, struck with his fourth ball by bowling Shanto around his legs by going past his reverse sweep, and when it looked like Anamul and Litton were going steady, Clarkson struck with two different kinds of short balls. He first took a return catch off Anamul by inducing a leading edge and then bowled a slower bouncer to have Litton caught behind. Like Shanto, Mushfiqur's reverse sweep also resulted in his dismissal when his top edge was caught by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell. Bangladesh were reeling at 103 for 5, with the asking rate above 10 an over.

Bangladesh were still in the game though, with Towhd Hridoy and Afif adding a quick stand of 56 off 38 balls, but it was still not enough to reduce the asking rate. They slipped further when Sodhi returned and had Hridoy caught at long leg off a wrong'un and Afif lobbed a catch to short midwicket next over. It was a lost cause to get 80 runs from six overs with three wickets in hand, and Mehidy's blows only ensured that Bangladesh got to 200.