Last chance for Tigers to win a match in New Zealand

With another series already conceded following losses in the first two T20s, touring Bangladesh find themselves in the familiar position of attempting to salvage some pride when they face New Zealand in the third and final T20 in Auckland on Thursday.

It’s all been one-way traffic so far in the whole tour. Since hosts New Zealand started the campaign in the first ODI in Dunedin, everything has gone in their way. Over the 11 days Tigers were blanked 0-3 in the ODIs, lost the two T20 internationals and they have one more opportunity to salvage something from this tour.

Unfoundedly it is quite difficult to beat New Zealand on New Zealand soil. But the drama about the rain law (DLS) method between Bangladesh and New Zealand that was staged on Tuesday in the second T20 match in Napier was really ugly.

This is really unexpected to see that batsmen are going to bat but they don’t know the target. Even it is really shocking when the batsmen was set a new target after they already faced nine balls.

Sent in by Bangladesh in the second T20, New Zealand reached 5-173 in the 18th over when their innings was cut short by rain.

Bangladesh were set a revised winning target of 170 from 16 overs under the Duckworth Lewis Stern system and finished 7-142 after losing their first match.

Amid bizarre scenes, Bangladesh began their run chase before match referee Jeff Crowe officially calculated their revised total.

The umpires stopped the match with Bangladesh 0-12 after 1.3 overs, waiting for official notification of the new target.

There was a long delay while Crowe worked feverishly at his computer. At one point he had what appeared to be an angry exchange with Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo.

Soumya Sarkar made a breezy half-century from 25 balls and added 81 for the second wicket with Mohammad Naim (38) to raise the hopes of the touring team. But it seemed all over when Soumya was dismissed after reaching the half century.

However Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo believes Soumya’s batting gave some confidence ahead of the final T20.

“A hundred after 10 overs, I think we got off to a great start (in the second T20). Very happy with the intensity of how we went about things which is a marked improvement from our previous game. Obviously we didn’t finish well but [there were] some real positives for us,” Domingo said.

New Zealand on the other hand have their intentions clear now and are aiming for a whitewash. And there seems to be little that can stop the Mahmudullah-led Bangladesh team from another sweep unless Tigers shrug off the horrors of their New Zealand tour so far.

“We haven’t done well in all three departments in one particular game. We have bowled well and batted well in separate matches. We need to bring it all together to win a game.” Bangladesh batsman Soumya Sarkar said.

Bangladesh (probable): 1 Liton Das (wk), 2 Mohammad Naim, 3 Soumya Sarkar, 4 Mohammad Mithun, 5 Mahmudullah (capt), 6 Afif Hossain, 7 Mahedi Hasan, 8 Mohammad Saifuddin, 9 Shoriful Islam, 10 Nasum Ahmed and 11 Taskin Ahmed

New Zealand (probable): 1 Finn Allen, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Devon Conway (wk), 4 Will Young, 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Mark Chapman, 7 Daryl Mitchell, 8 Tim Southee (capt), 9 Ish Sodhi, 10, Adam Milne and 11 Hamish Bennett.