Black Caps coast to victory

Henry Nicholls has guided the Black Caps to a convincing seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh at Saxton Oval.

After Bangladesh scored 291, the Black Caps looked comfortable on a wicket that suited the batters throughout the match.

Having won the toss, the Black Caps elected to bowl first and took just 25 balls to find the first break through, with Anamul Haque edging it through to Henry Nicholls for a catch around his laces at second slip.

That started a constant flow of wickets, with Bangladesh unable to find a solidifying partnership early in the order.

Local boy Josh Clarkson was in the mix, having a run out by touching the ball into the wickets on a straight shot back to him and a wicket at the death, having been unlucky not to pick up three as a plum LBW was reviewed and found to have a feather edge.

But, opening batsman Soumya Sarkar stuck around and provided the rock of the innings for Bangladesh.

They quieted the crowd with slow and steady batting to finish on 291 all-out after a trio of wickets for Will O'Rourke in the final over. Soumya's 169 runs earned a standing ovation from the crowd, but it was ultimately too little too late on a wicket that suited the batsmen throughout.

Of the 13 wickets in the match, 11 were catches as top end batsmen required a mistake to lose their wicket instead of being generated by the bowling attack, while the remaining two were a freakish run out and a golden duck yorker to cleanly bowl Bangladesh's 11th batsman.

The Black Caps started their innings with a firm hand, racing away with the help of the power play to a handy start before they lost Rachin Ravindra (45) as he looked to clear the boundary with a low and hard shot to mid wicket that was caught.

But the initial breakthrough was all the success the Bangladesh players saw for a long period as Will Young (89) and Henry teamed up to pile on a 128-run partnership before Will was dismissed, caught and bowled. But, the pair had set the platform to capitalise, and the Black Caps were already well on track to a win in an ultimately dominant display. Henry also fell short of his century, caught on the boundary as he looked to pull it onto the legside, seeing Tom Latham (34) and Tom Blundall (24) close out the innings.

While Bangladesh's innings accelerated towards the death, the Black Caps were able to coast to the win with a six to win.