Twitter Reactions: Bangladesh go down fighting against a stuttering New Zealand

The match between Bangladesh and New Zealand at the Kennington Oval in London turned out to be an absolute nail biter. The game wasn’t a high-scoring one by any stretch of the imagination but had every ingredient of keeping everyone at the edge of their seats. Eventually, after loads of twists and turns, the Kane Williamson-captained team came out trumps by a couple of wickets with 17 balls to spare.

The Tigers strain to a fighting score

Despite the results of both encounters at the venue going against the chasing teams, the Kiwis elected to field first after winning the toss. Both sides went unchanged for the match under overcast conditions. Tamim Iqbal’s approach was subdued and he got out to Lockie Ferguson. Soumya Sarkar entertained with some scorching strokes but played one shot too many as Matt Henry rattled his woodwork.

Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim manoeuvred the field and put on 50 runs together. Unfortunately, the latter had to go owing to a run-out. The wicketkeeper scored a 35-ball 19. Shakib, playing his 200th ODI, scored a well-crafted half-century. However, Colin de Grandhomme found his outside-side and he perished after scoring a 68-ball 64. Henry nipped out Mohammad Mithun at the score of 26 off 33.

Mahmudullah, who has a couple of tons against the Kiwis in ICC tournaments, had a torrid time as well. He could only manage 20 off 41. Mosaddek Hossain also had pretty less idea about proceedings and he got a 22-ball 11. The Tigers didn’t seem to gather much momentum in the death overs. Mohammad Saifuddin churned out some big strokes and scored 29 off 23 to take his team to 244 in 49.2 overs.

Tigers fight their heart out

The New Zealand openers- Colin Munro and Martin Guptill- came out firing on all cylinders. However, both got out in quick succession after cameos of 24 and 25 respectively. Both the wickets were picked up by Shakib Al Hasan. The Tigers created quite a few chances in the outfield, but a few sloppy works in the outfield didn’t help their cause. Both Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson got a lucky break each.

The duo didn’t allow the pressure to mount and stitched together a stand of 105 runs that put the Black Caps on the driver’s seat. Taylor was the more dominating partner in the stand and he brought up a half-century off 40 balls. Williamson also looked solid, having scored 40 off 72. Unfortunately, Mehidy Hasan Miraz accounted for his wicket. Miraz delivered another blow as he got rid of Tom Latham for a duck.

Nevertheless, it was Mosaddek, who gave Bangladesh the big breakthrough with Taylor’s wicket, caught by Mushfiqur down the leg side. Taylor scored 82 off 91. James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme went after 25 and 15. Saifuddin castled Henry in the 47th over to pick up the seventh wicket. In the end, Mitchell Santner hit Mustafizur Rahman for a four to bring the curtains down on the encounter.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the cliffhanger