Opener Martin Guptill hit a fighting century to guide New Zealand to their sixth consecutive victory in the World Cup with a three-wicket win over an inspired Bangladesh in Hamilton yesterday.
Guptill scored 105 for his sixth one-day hundred to help the co-hosts chase down a daunting 289-run target with seven balls to spare on a batting-friendly pitch at Seddon Park in a match in which the Black Caps were tested for the first time in the tournament.
Guptill’s knock overshadowed Mohammad Mahmudullah’s second consecutive hundred, his 128 not out propelling Bangladesh to 288-7 in their 50 overs.
Photo: AFP
New Zealand had already made sure of top spot in Pool A and they will face the fourth-placed finishers from Pool B — where Pakistan, Ireland and West Indies are still alive — in the fourth quarter-final in Wellington next Saturday.
Bangladesh, who finished the group stage with seven points from six matches, face defending champions India in the second quarter-final in Melbourne on Thursday.
Bangladesh caught New Zealand napping at 33-2 by taking the key wickets of Brendon McCullum (8) and Kane Williamson (1) by opening with spin from both ends — only the second time in World Cup history that slow bowlers have opened the attack.
New Zealand did the same against South Africa in the 2011 quarter-final in Dhaka.
Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan took both the early wickets before Guptill and Ross Taylor (56) revived the innings through their 131-run stand for the third wicket.
Guptill took a single off paceman Taskin Ahmed to reach his hundred off 88 balls before holing out to Hasan after suffering leg cramps.
Taylor added another 46 with Grant Elliott (39) before Bangladesh took three wickets in the space of 37 runs to get a sniff of an upset victory.
Corey Anderson, who hit three fours and as many sixes, fell for 39 before Tim Southee hit a six and a four to seal New Zealand’s first win after seven successive defeats against Bangladesh between 2010-2013 — all away from home.
Hasan finished with 4-55.
Earlier, Mahmudullah rescued Bangladesh from a struggling 27-2 after they were put to bat.
Mahmudullah, dropped on 1 by Anderson off Southee, anchored the innings and added an invaluable 90 for the third wicket with Soumya Sarkar (51) and another 78 for the sixth with Sabbir Rahman, who made a fiery 23-ball 40.
Mahmudullah steered paceman Mitchell McClenaghan toward third man for a couple to complete his 100 off 111 balls before blowing a kiss to the applauding Bangladeshi fans.
He became only the second Bangladeshi batsman to score back-to-back hundreds in all one-day internationals after Shahriar Nafees, who achieved the feat against Zimbabwe at home in 2006.
In all Mahmudullah hit 12 fours and three sixes as New Zealand’s bowlers were tested for the first time in the tournament with Southee going wicketless.
Rahman raised the tempo by hitting two sixes and five fours to help Bangladesh add 104 runs in the last 10 overs.
Left-arm paceman Trent Boult had jolted Bangladesh by dismissing Imrul Kayes (two) and Tamim Iqbal (13) in his first spell to finish with 2-56.
Anderson removed senior Bangladeshi batsmen Shakib A Hasan for 23 and Mushfiqur Rahim for 15 to finish with 2-43.
Bangladesh were without their regular skipper Mashrafe Mortaza after he was ruled out due to a soar throat and a calf injury while New Zealand had to leave out unfit Adam Milne and brought in McClenaghan for their first change in the tournament.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier