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Rediff.com  » Cricket » New Zealand rout Bangladesh

New Zealand rout Bangladesh

December 31, 2007 09:51 IST
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New Zealand humiliated Bangladesh by 10 wickets in rapid time in the third one-day international at Queenstown on Monday to complete a 3-0 series clean sweep.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori and wicketkeeper-batsman Brendon McCullum turned in career-best performances to end one of the most lop-sided matches in one-day international history.

Vettori claimed five wickets for seven runs as Bangladesh collapsed to be all out for just 93 in less than 38 overs.

McCullum then pounded an unbeaten 80 off 28 balls to steer the Kiwis to victory after just six overs.

"It was pretty comprehensive and ruthless as well," Vettori told a news conference.

"We asked for continual improvement from the last two performances and I think we just got a complete performance today."

McCullum smashed nine fours and six sixes and reached his half-century off only 19 deliveries, breaking his own record for the fastest fifty by a New Zealander and just missing Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya's world record of 17 balls.

Such was the ferocity of McCullum's attack that his opening partner, Jamie How, was reduced to being a virtual onlooker, although he managed an unbeaten seven off eight balls.

"It was just one of the most destructive innings you'll ever see," Vettori said.

"Sweep-slogging pretty decent fast bowlers is pretty impressive and I just wish he'd known he was so close to the half-century record, I think he would have pushed it pretty hard."

The match was as good as over once Vettori had run through the Bangladesh batting lineup inside 38 overs. Only four of the Bangladesh batsmen reached double figures with skipper Mohammad Ashraful top-scoring with 25 off 31 balls.

Kyle Mills and fellow seamer Michael Mason collected two wickets each and all-rounder Jacob Oram grabbed one but it was Vettori's left-arm spinners that did most of the damage.

Vettori's five-wicket haul was just his second in one-day internationals, eclipsing his 5-30 against West Indies in 2004.

It took the spinner's career total to 207, passing Chris Harris as New Zealand's highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals. Vettori also finished 2007 as the leading one-day wicket-taker in the world for the year with 43 scalps.

Ashraful said Bangladesh only had themselves to blame and had a lot of work to do for the first Test starting later this week.

"We played really poor cricket, especially the batsmen. The wicket was slow, but we played really bad cricket," he said.

"We need to improve our Test cricket record by working hard and I think we're going to play well.

"Our top order batsmen are doing a really good job in the nets and leave the ball well."

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Source: REUTERS
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