news details |
|
|
| Kiwis beat Bangladesh to inch closer to semis | | |
ST JOHN'S (ANTIGUA), APR 3
Stephen Fleming stroked an unbeaten 102 as cricket's perpetual bridesmaids New Zealand trampled Bangladesh by nine wickets in a Super Eight match to put one foot in the semi-final of the World Cup here on Monday.
The Kiwi bowlers did the spadework, skittling out the minnows for a meagre 174 runs in 48.3 overs, before Fleming and Hamish Marshall (50 not out) shared an unbeaten 134-run stand as New Zealand romped home with 20.4 overs to spare.
Despite Michael Mason limping off the field with a calf strain and his pace colleague James Franklin sitting out major part of the innings with a migraine, Bangladesh could not create any real headache for the Kiwis who are now in touching distance of a semifinal berth.
This was also a sweet revenge of the Kiwis' humiliating two-wicket defeat against the minnows in the warm-up match in Bridgetown.
A victory target of 175 against a toothless Bangladesh attack was never going to be a real challenge and the Kiwis completed the job with clinical precision losing the lone wicket of Peter Fulton (15).
Though their batsmen could not put enough runs on the board, Bangladesh bowlers, however, bowled their heart out but the only time they celebrated was when Fulton was caught by Tamim Iqbal off Syed Rasel.
Fleming struck his eighth ODI century in the match, second in the World Cup. His 90-ball knock featured three sixes and 10 boundaries.
On the other hand, Hamish Marshall brought up his 12th fifty and the team's victory in style, hitting Mohammad Ashraful over mid-wicket for a six.
Earlier, Scott Styris and Jacob Oram shared seven wickets between them as New Zealand skittled out Bangladesh for a paltry total.
Asked to bat first, Iqbal (29) and Javed Omar (22) gave a sedate start to Bangladesh but the minnows lost wickets at regular intervals and it was tailender Mohamad Rafique's 36-ball knock of 30 which took them past the 150-mark.
Aftab Ahmed (27) and Saqibul Hasan (25) were the other main contributors in the Bangla innings.
Styris claimed four for 43 in his 10 overs, while Oram's figure read 9.3-0-30-3. Shane Bond grabbed two wickets in the first over of his second spell and finished with the impressive figure of 10-4-15-2, which was enough to earn him the man of the match award.
After Fleming had invited the minnows to bat in the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, Bangladesh seemed game for a fight.
Iqbal and Omar showed tremendous grit to push the score to 55, raising hopes of a decent total but both the openers departed in quick succession, thanks to Oram's doubles strikes.
Tamim went for a sweep and over-balanced as stumper Brendon McCullum whipped off the bails to effect a sharp stumping and Oram then struck again in his next over.
He induced Omar for a cut even though there was not enough room and the nick nestled safely into McCullum's gloves. The batsman did not wait for the umpire's decision and walked away, leaving Bangladesh reeling at 62 for two at that stage.
However to their credit, Ahmed and Hasan did not panic and hang around to take the score past 100-mark with a third-wicket partnership of 43 runs.
The boundaries were not really flowing and Ahmed perished trying to step on the accelerator. He misread the length of a Styris delivery as his drive ballooned up and substitute fielder Mark Gillespie took a well-judged catch at long on.
Oram, meanwhile, continued to torment the minnows and this time it was his direct throw from deep point which caught Bangla captain Habibul Bashar (9) short of his ground.
Fleming brought back Bond to tighten the noose and the Kiwi spearhead responded by castling Hasan with the first delivery and then removing Mushfiqur Rehman (0) with the last ball of the over in the same fashion.
Styris then ran through the middle order and removed Mashrafe Mortaza (2) and Abdur Razzak (0) in the same over and Oram returned to castle Syed Rasel (10) to drop curtains on the Bangladesh innings.
Left-hander Rafique threw his bat at everything and hit two sixes, off Styris, and a four for an unbeaten cameo of 30.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
