After taking Bangladesh apart in the opening match on Saturday, New Zealand have the chance to secure their ODI series on Tuesday when the two sides move over to Christchurch for the second match of the three.
Bangladesh will know that they must improve dramatically and find a way to win the game if they want to take the series to a decider later in the week. Anything but that and New Zealand will have the series and the World Cup qualifying points that come with winning the match.
New Zealand
You don’t very often get perfect performances first up in these series but New Zealand have been playing white ball cricket for long enough now that if any team were going to deliver it then they would have had as good a chance as any. That is exactly how it played out too. They got on top early with the ball and never really gave Bangladesh any let up where they could establish themselves in the innings and then they put a tiny run chase to bed very quickly.
The task for the Kiwis now is to try and replicate that level of performance. That isn’t always easy for two reasons. When the opposition aren’t at their best then the natural thing is to drop to their level a little bit and the second one being that as we switch venues conditions change. One thing which might help New Zealand in that quest is that they have a couple of players who are looking to prove themselves for the future which is never a bad thing.
Bangladesh
When you consider that Bangladesh hadn’t been able to have a warm up match ahead of the series they were probably likely to be a little undercooked and likely to struggle a bit initially in that opening game but I think they would have been disappointed with how far off the pace they ended up being. There is no wriggle room to be below par or not at the races here else they would have lost the series almost before they even touched down in the country.
I think the first thing Bangladesh need to acknowledge if they are going to get back into the series is that they have to get through the new ball unscathed and give themselves a chance. Trent Boult is too good to be playing the shots they got out to against but if they can get through him and build into their innings they have enough to put up a score. Then they need to attempt to get early wickets and keep control over a better New Zealand batting order than it looks.
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Team News
There was said to be a chance that New Zealand could have Ross Taylor back for this second ODI but that is not now the case. You would think given how dominant they were in the previous match that New Zealand will not bother changing it for this one.
Bangladesh might feel they need to change something though and you would think that something will be to bolster their batting. That might see a recall for Mohammad Saifuddin as he can extend the batting without depriving Tamim of a bowling option.
Betting
I expect an improvement out of Bangladesh in this match but I’m not convinced that will necessarily lead to a high scoring match. Although Bangladesh weren’t really at the races in Dunedin in the opening match we saw the pitch turn a little bit so it might be that we are at that stage of the summer where the wickets are just beginning to tire a little which might make batting a little more difficult compared to what we might expect.
Usually we would expect a high scoring match at Hagley Oval where the outfield is lightning and the pitch usually true but this is one of the bigger outfields in New Zealand so the boundaries are natural hits like they were in Dunedin. This is also a night match so the outfield might juice up a bit later on and slow up so boundary hitting may not come naturally to the stroke players on either side. That makes me think the 61.5 boundaries line for this one is just a little on the high side and I’m happy to play the under.
Tips
WON – Back Under 61.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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