NZ romp home despite Mustafizur's heroics

KOLKATA: On a steamy Saturday afternoon, when the crafty Mustafizur Rahman had New Zealand in a trance with his magical cutters, Bangladesh batsmen chose to throw it away without even putting up a semblance of fight in an inconsequential World T20 tie at the Eden Gardens. The left-arm pacer snared 5 for 22 in 4 overs to restrict New Zealand to 1458 on a typically sluggish Eden deck which had no demons in it.Little did he realise that his batters would let the team down and crash to 70 all out in 15.4 overs their lowest T20 International total, putting to shade the 78 they had managed against the same opposition in Hamilton four years ago. New Zealand's 75-run win was their fourth time in as many matches. Kane Williamson's men thus topped Group II and await the second-placed team in Group I in the semifinal at the Kotla.
Tamim Iqbal's run out in the second over, courtesy a brilliant Colin Munro throw, dealt a body blow to Bangladesh early in their chase. Mithun, the other opener, wasted too many deliveries before trying to slog Mitchell McClenaghan and getting castled.
With the Power Play overs yielding just 30, Shakib Al Hasan had to take his chances. He only managed to hole out to deep mid-wicket off Mitchell Santner. And when Shabbir Rehman lofted Nathan McCullum straight to Santner at the same position, Bangladesh's hopes of salvag ing a consolation win were dead and buried. The last six wickets went down for 27 runs in the space of 5-and-a-half overs. That only three batsmen made double-digit scores tell the tale. Spinner Ish Sodhi (321) and medium-pacer Grant Elliott (312) shared six wickets between them.
The day , though, had started encouragingly for the Tigers. Mustafizur stood head and shoulders above the rest. He claimed a fiver worth its weight in gold... If only the batsmen had repaid his effort in kind.