New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill thinks Bangladesh bowlers bowled well in the first overs of their chase but Kiwis batted smartly to win the first match of the three-match one-day international series.
Guptill scored a brilliant unbeaten 117-run innings off 116 balls to help his team reach 233/2 in 44.3 overs while chasing Bangladesh’s 232 all out in 48.5 overs at Napier on Wednesday.
?? SUPERB CENTURY! ??
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 13, 2019
Martin Guptill cruises past triple figures, his 15th ODI century off 103 balls.
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“Bangladesh bowled really well in the first ten overs. They didn’t give a lot of bad balls away. We had to work hard for our runs. The way Henry (Nicholls) and I rotated the strike, I thought, it helped the partnership develop,” said man of the match Guptill after the match.
Guptill also gave credit to hosts’ bowlers as they did a good job restricting Tigers for an under-par score on a good pitch in a smallish ground.
“It is always satisfying to see the team through to a win. It was set up by the bowlers in the first innings. They set the tone for the day. They made sure Bangladesh were not able to get away from us.
“The bowlers set the tone and the batsmen backed that up nicely. The fielding was also great. It’s important we back that up in the rest of the series.” - Kane Williamson #NZvBAN pic.twitter.com/OaxVKzT4C0
— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) February 13, 2019
New Zealand lost the five-match ODI series in their home turf against another sub-continent side India by 4-1 recently and Guptill thinks the batsmen need to access the pitches properly in this condition. He also thought, despite his brilliant knock he is yet to reach his peak.
“It has been a funny old summer. We haven’t really had the flat wickets with good carry and bounce like in the previous years so some of them have been quite hard work. We didn’t do well enough throughout that series so we tried to rectify it today. Not losing early wickets was a key to our plan. We set the platform to let the guys see the game through. I still wasn’t in my fluent best today. I was pretty happy to see the team through to the win,” said Guptill, who has now 15 ODI centuries, third best behind Stephen Fleming’s 20 and Nathan Astle’s 16.
