Bangladesh overcame a valiant innings by Tom Latham to beat New Zealand by 4 runs in the second T20 international in Dhaka and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series on Friday. Chasing 142 for victory, New Zealand ran Bangladesh close thanks to captain Latham’s unbeaten 65 but his efforts were still not enough to take his team over the line and ended up with 137 for 5 in 20 overs. But the defeat was mostly caused by yet another poor batting performance by New Zealand with only Latham, Will Young (22) and Rachin Ravindra (10) managing to score in double digits.
Mahedi Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan bagged a couple of wickets each while Nasum Ahmed grabbed one. Mustafizur Rahman didn’t get a wicket but he managed to defend 20 in the final over, conceding 15 in the 20th to seal Bangladesh’s this successive win in T20Is this year. “In T20s, you get these sort of close games. Happy to get the win, that’s what matters. Mustafizur held his nerve. I had quite a bit of confidence on him to deliver and he did. Mahedi has been bowling well, he’s been giving early breakthroughs
The wicket got better under lights. We believe that we are a good team in this format. We are happy to continue this streak (eight wins this calendar year),” Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah said after the match.
Earlier, Bangladesh managed to post 141 for 6 after electing to bat first at the Shere Bangla stadium. Mohammad Naim (39) and Liton Das (33) laid a solid foundation for the hosts with their 59-run partnership before they lost a couple of quick wickets.
Mahmudullah steadied the innings with 37 not out to help his team post a challenging total. Rachin Ravindra was New Zealand’s standout bowler with 3 wickets for 22 runs from his 4 overs.
“It was a great game. For us to learn from the first game, I thought we did that. We weren’t quite as good with the ball today but we bowled quite well at the top.
