Guptill century caps easy New Zealand win

Opener Martin Guptill hit an unbeaten century to lead hosts New Zealand to a comfortable eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the first ODI in Napier on Wednesday.

Although they made a very slow start, Guptill and fellow opening partner Henry Nicholls made 103 in the first wicket before the latter was bowled by Mehidy Hasan Miraz on 53.

Captain Kane Williamson could only manage 11 as Mahmudullah trapped him leg before, but Guptill and Ross Taylor set up a 96-run partnership to bring the win.

Man-of-the-Match Guptill’s unbeaten 117-run innings was studded with eight fours and four sixes. Taylor added 45 in 49 balls.

Bangladesh did win the toss and chose to bat first, but most of the top-order batsmen failed to click and it was left to Mohammad Mithun and number-nine batsman Mohammad Saifuddin to avert a big embarrassment.

The pair added 84 in the eighth wicket to make sure the team post a decent total of 232 from going seven wickets down on 131.

The visitors started losing wickets from the second ball of the second over, and openers Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das and two-down Mushfiqur Rahim could only manage 5, 1 and 5 respectively.

One-down batsman Soumya Sarkar was quite different, hitting 30 off 22 deliveries, but his innings was cut short by Matt Henry.

Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman both added 13 and Mehidy Hasan Miraz 26, but it was that eighth-wicket partnership that took Bangladesh past 200.

Mithun’s industrious 90-ball innings ended on 62, the batsman hitting five fours while Saifuddin contributed 41 in 58 deliveries.

Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner both claimed three wickets while Henry and Lockie Ferguson each grabbed a brace for the hosts.