New Zealand coast to innings victory

There was no brave rearguard partnership, no stubborn resistance which delayed the inevitable on the third day in Wellington as New Zealand crushed Bangladesh by an innings and 137 runs in less than seven sessions to seal the 2-0 clean sweep of the series. New Zealand took four out of the required five wickets in 25 overs this morning, and with Tamim Iqbal nursing a broken thumb in the dressing room, the Bangladesh innings ended on 113 for 9.

Bangladesh had saved their most feeble batting performance for their final innings of the tour. In Dunedin they had batted 46.1 and 83.1 overs in the first and second innings respectively. They were abject in the first innings at the Basin Reserve, surviving only 45.3 overs and it did not get much better in the second, in which they collapsed in 47 overs. The overcast, windy conditions and a pitch that offered plenty of bounce and lateral movement, which New Zealand's seam attack exploited, simply proved to be beyond the Bangladesh batsmen's abilities. Only Shakib Al Hasan, who had replaced Enamul Haque Jnr to strengthen the batting, resisted, remaining unbeaten on 41 but he too offered two chances to slip.

The capitulation began in the first over of the day. Chris Martin got one to nip back into Habibul Bashar, who played outside of the line of the ball without moving his feet, and the leg before decision was easy for Peter Parker to make. New Zealand's bowlers endured a barren patch of 13 overs before their next wicket and it was during this period that Shakib was dropped twice, on 19 and 29, off Iain O'Brien. He received his first let off when Matthew Bell dropped a sharp chance at second slip and it was Bell, again, who made no attempt to catch one that flew between him and first slip.

Shahadat Hossain stuck around for 37 balls before fending away from his body and edging O'Brien to McCullum and an awful mix-up immediately after the drinks break left Sajidul Islam stranded half-way down the pitch to give New Zealand the eighth wicket.

Mashrafe Mortaza, who was demoted to No. 11 yet again, and Shakib added 30 runs for the final wicket before Mortaza was splendidly caught by Mills, diving to his right at point, to end the game ten minutes before lunch. The last wicket had produced Bangladesh's highest partnership, an indictment of how poor the batting performance had been.