Career-best innings by Tom Latham and Colin Munro, as well as a valuable bowling cameo by all-rounder James Neesham, propelled New Zealand to a 77-run win over Bangladesh in the first one-day international yesterday and a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Latham batted 47.3 overs for 137, beating his previous best score and his only other century in one-day internationals of 110, while Munro scored 87 from 61 balls to eclipse his best of 85, also against Bangladesh, in 2013.
The fifth-wicket partnership between the pair of 158 lifted New Zealand to 341-7 after they won the toss, beating by three runs their previous best score against Bangladesh and matching their highest total at the Hagley Oval.
Photo: AFP
Neesham then took 3-36 as New Zealand held Bangladesh to 264-9 to maintain their unbeaten record in one-day internationals against Bangladesh in New Zealand.
Bangladesh have won the past seven matches between the teams on their home soil.
The visitors’ innings ended after 44.5 overs, with Mushfiqur Rahim having retired hurt with a hamstring strain on 42.
Shakib al-Hasan produced an outstanding all-round performance for Bangladesh as their best bowler with 3-69 and their best batsman with 59 from 54 balls.
“Obviously, we had a very, very good first half with a number of very good partnerships to get a score like that,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said. “One bloke, Tommy Latham, went on to get a big hundred, which was a great knock and the backbone of our innings. Colin’s was an extremely mature innings at that stage and a partnership which was really, really important.”
Man-of-the-match Latham offered stability that was lacking when New Zealand were swept 3-0 in their one-day series in Australia.
Bangladesh might have been slightly under-prepared for the match, having played only one warm-up match against a New Zealand selection ahead of this series.
The match was closer than it appeared. After 30 overs Bangladesh was 159-5, while New Zealand had been only slightly better placed at 168-4. The difference was the lack of a foundation innings like Latham’s and an outright slogger like Munro.
Shakib’s top score of the innings contained five fours and two sixes. Mosaddek Hossain made a gallant unbeaten half-century near the end.
“It’s disappointing,” Bangladesh captain Masrafe Mortaza said. “The bowling unit allowed 40 runs too many, otherwise it could have been different. I think the top order also has to step up a little bit more.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later