Abdul Jabbar Faisal
RAWALPINDI: New Zeeland posted a comprehensive triumph by 5 wickets against Bangladesh to confirm their berth in the top-four stage of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, here at Pindi Cricket Stadium on Monday. Result of the Group match disappointed hosts Pakistan, as they were officially ousted from title race.
This was a game that Najmul Hossain Shanto's team had to win to stay alive. But they batted like that was just too much trouble. Bangladesh started at nearly a run a ball. But 10 of the next 15 overs went for three runs or fewer. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah fell from the pressure created in this period. A combined 511 matches' worth of experience was only good for 6 runs in a do-or-die game. Their wickets left Shanto with no way forward. He kept having to readjust to a new partner, to a new match situation and in the end produced a staccato innings of 77 off 110. He could've done better. The others should've done better.
Taskin Ahmed and Nahid Rana raised Bangladesh's hopes with a fiery opening spell, rattling Will Young's stumps in the first over and snaring Williamson for a rare single-digit score. The infield was richly populated at that point. The whole atmosphere was buzzing, the crowd also getting in the act. Into this walked Ravindra. One of the best things about his batting is his touch. It's so pure. Down at No. 4 - he was brought into the XI to replace an ill Daryl Mitchell - there was possibly a risk that he wouldn't be able to take full toll of that. But as luck would have it, he began his innings within the field restrictions and that meant he could profit from his timing. His first five fours were all about finding the gap because his timing always took care of the rest.
Ravindra had to wait 11 overs since the field spread to find his next boundary but that didn't mean he was stagnant. His first 23 runs came off 21 balls with five fours. His next 28 runs came off 29 balls with one four. There was one chance in between all that. A mix-up with his Wellington team-mate Devon Conway could have resulted in him being run-out had Tanzid Hasan been able to get a direct hit in the 12th over.
Bangladesh weren't able to take their chances. New Zealand did. Williamson did have a hand in proceedings here, picking up smart catches at short midwicket and cover. Michael Bracewell, after wrapping up an uninterrupted 10-over spell, ran 30 yards to his right to pick up a diving catch that probably wasn't even his. But he decided to take charge and it worked.
Bracewell contributed 43 of 178 dot balls that plagued Bangladesh. You have to go back to 2012 to find an innings they'd paced quite so poorly. Rotating strike was a struggle and the avenues they chose to get out of that weren't ideal. Perhaps the pitch was too slow in the afternoon to be able to work the ball into gaps. Mushfiqur made a play against Bracewell but he couldn't clear the long boundary with his slog sweep. Bangladesh were 106 for 4 in the 23rd over. At a time when consolidation was actually needed, Mahmudullah made an ill-advised trip down the track and skewed a leading edge to cover.
Bracewell contributed to his success by slowing his pace down. Bangladesh contributed considerably more. They exit the tournament having faced more than 50 overs of dot balls. Their decision-making left them so short on batting resources that they had Taskin on strike for the 45th over and it ended up as a maiden. The Black Caps had pulled off another flex, earlier when they had only three fielders, instead of the five allowed, on the boundary in the 40th over.
New Zealand went into the chase knowing all they needed were a couple of partnerships and New Zealand got them. Ravindra put on 57 runs with Conway and then 129 with Tom Latham, who is so good at that middle-order crisis manage role. You can totally imagine him side-kicking whoever leads the earth's remaining population at the end of a zombie apocalypse. First things first though, there's an ICC trophy up for grabs.
