Bangladesh thrash New Zealand 4-0
While the entire country was talking about Sachin Tendulkar's exploits against Australia which resulted in a historic 2-0 series sweep for India, the premier all rounder in the world cricket and Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hassan scripted a historic victory for Bangladesh over New Zealand. Bangladesh thrashed New Zealand in a 5 match ODI series in which the second ODI was washed out by rain without a ball being bowled. The result of the 5 ODI series is given below:-
1st match on 5th October 2010:- Bangladesh 228 all out in 49.3 overs defeated New Zealand 200 for 8 in 37 overs. Bangladesh won by 9 runs in D/L method after being set a revised target.
2nd match on 8th October 2010: Washed out by rain without a single ball being bowled.
3rd match on 11th October 2010: New Zealand 173 all out in 42.5 lost Bangladesh 177 for 3 in 40 overs. Bangladesh won by 7 wickets with 10 overs to spare.
4th match on 14th October 2010: Bangladesh 241 all out in 48.1 overs beat New Zealand 232 in 49.3 overs
5th match on 17th October 2010: Bangladesh 174 all out in 44.2 overs beat New Zealand 171 all out in 49.3 overs.
The hero of Bangladesh's victory has been their 23 year old skipper Shakib Al Hasan who has had some historic triumphs in his young career leading to his team to clean sweeps against the West Indies in their own back yard but then the skipper did not get much credit inspite of outstanding captaincy and brilliant all round performances because that was against a second string West Indian team. This time around Bangladesh performances is the all more praise worthy if you consider the fact that New Zealand had a full strength which boasted of their skipper Daniel Vettori with 259 one dayers against his name. Apart from Vettori, there was Mccullum who has 175 matches to his name and Kyle Mills with 118 matches to his credit.
Shakib Al Hasan who is currently ranked number one all rounder and number two bowler in the world in ICC ODI rankings has been the highest run getter and wicket taker in the series from both sides as Shakib Al Hassan has beat his competitors by a big distance in both departments. Shakib Al Hassan who was ranked number one in ICC ODI rankings for a long time in both bowler and all rounder rankings scored 213 runs at high average of 71 with a brilliant strike rate of 97.70 with a century and a half century. Imrun Kayes of Bangladesh was a distant second with 137 runs at an average of 34.25. Shakib Al Hasan was the highest wicket taker in the 4 match series with 11 wickets averaging just 15.90 runs per wicket, a economy rate of 4.72 and a strike rate of 20.1 deliveries per wicket which is simply outstanding. Kyle Mills of New Zeland was well behind with 8 wickets at 19.50 at an economy rate of 5.22.
If one were to look at the results the highest total Bangladesh have posted is 241 which one must say is a modest score and the lowest they have posted is 173 which is paltry, and yet they managed to win both the matches indicates that Bangladesh is mentally a very tough team and that is the what separates the best from the rest. Going by Bangladesh's performances against New Zealand one should not be surprised if Bangladesh would be on par with other Asian giants by 2015.
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