ICC Champions Trophy 2017: 5 things that went wrong for New Zealand against Bangladesh
After a damp start to the tournament, the Champions Trophy suddenly sprung to life in the past couple of days with the slightly unexpected victories of Pakistan over South Africa and Sri Lanka over India.
With the format of the tournament offering minimal margin for error and a few rain-marred games in between, the last leg of the group stage matches had set themselves up as exciting knockout clashes.
In the first of those clashes in Group A, New Zealand took on Bangladesh in Cardiff. The Kiwis had tasted defeat against the latter in a tri-series, also involving Ireland, few days prior to the tournament and would have been wary of their opposition going into the must-win encounter.
Their worst fears came true at the end of the match, when Bangladesh scripted an epic come-from-behind victory to knock them out of the tournament.
Opting to bat first, New Zealand could scrape through to a total of 265 only, less than par in these conditions. Yet, their hopes would have brightened after a brilliant spell with the new ball from Tim Southee reduced the opposition to 12/3 in the 5th over.
However, that was all for New Zealand in the game as Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah stitched together a record partnership, taking Bangladesh past the target quite nonchalantly. As being the first team to be knocked out would suggest, nothing has gone right for the Kiwis through their short campaign.
Here are five things that went wrong for them in this virtual knockout against Bangladesh.
#1 Openers disappoint again
Primary to New Zealand’s woes in the tournament has been the indifferent form of its openers, that has put added responsibility on the shoulders of Kane Williamson.
Opener Martin Guptill, a vital cog in their limited overs team, has had a lean patch in the tournament. In each of the three games, the opener got off to starts – scores of 26, 27 and 33 – before throwing his wicket away. This, after a hard-hitting 116 against Sri Lanka in the warm-ups.
At the other end, Luke Ronchi started impressively with a couple of 60s in the warm-up against India and in New Zealand’s opening game against Australia but faded away with a golden duck against England and 16 here against England.
Against Bangladesh, the duo started solidly and added 46 for the first wicket before Ronchi mistimed a shot to mid-on. Not much later, Guptill was trapped plumb in front of the stumps by Rubel Hossain. While the openers did get off to a start, New Zealand would have expected both to convert their starts into longer innings.
This would have ensured New Zealand scored much more than just 265.